AUTHOR=Liu Ying , Wang Shan , Dai Wenkui , Liang Yuan , Shen Chunping , Li Yunzhu , Jiao Lei , Bian Yawei , Gao Zhan , Li Yinhu , Li Dongfang , Li Shuaicheng , Blaser Martin J. , Tang Yi-Wei , Ma Lin 

TITLE=Distinct Skin Microbiota Imbalance and Responses to Clinical Treatment in Children With Atopic Dermatitis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2020.00336

DOI=10.3389/fcimb.2020.00336

ISSN=2235-2988

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common cutaneous disease, associated with imbalances in the skin microbiota.</p><p><bold>Objective:</bold> To explore the characteristics of the cutaneous microbiota and its dynamic changes during clinical treatment.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> Cutaneous swab samples were collected from 51 AD patients before treatment, and 40 AD patients remained after a 2-week treatment with mometasone and mupirocin.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> AD patients exhibited significant enrichments of <italic>Prevotella</italic> and <italic>Desulfovibrio</italic> as well as obvious reductions of <italic>Corynebacterium, Streptococcus</italic> and <italic>Parabacteroides</italic>. Based on the proportion of <italic>Staphylococcus aureus</italic>, the AD patients were further classified into <italic>S. aureus-</italic>predominant group (AD.S) and <italic>S. aureus-</italic>non-dominant (AD.ND) group. The AD.S group exhibited lower skin microbial diversity and higher atopic dermatitis (SCORAD) index. In the AD.S group, the cutaneous microbial diversity significantly increased from 2.9 ± 0.8 to 3.7 ± 1.0, while the relative abundance of <italic>S. aureus</italic> decreased from 42.5 ± 20.7 to 10.3 ± 28.4 after treatment. In contrast, no significant skin microbiota changes were detected in the AD.ND group.</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> AD patients with predominant <italic>S. aureus</italic> had higher disease severity and lower microbiota diversity compared to patients in the AD.ND group. Mometasone and mupirocin therapy had significant effects on skin microbiota in AD.S patients, but had a paradoxical response in the AD.ND patients.</p>