The lower respiratory tract microbiome in pediatric patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia

Ventilator associated pneumonia(VAP)is one of the major source of nosocomial infection in PICU, of which the pathogenesis remains unclear.Recent metataxonomic and metagenomic technologies, from 16S ribosomal RNA to whole genome sequencing, have revealed that healthy lungs harbor a dynamic ecosystem of bacteria and dysbiosis of the respiratory microbiome involved in the pathogenesis and progression of VAP.Recent studies have illustrated that the imbalance of species diversity and abundance of lung microbiome might be the underlying cause of VAP through regulating local mucosal immune response.These methods offer the potential to better interrogate the relationship between an intubated individual′s respiratory microbiota and the underlying disease process to provide important insights into the pathogenesis of VAP, optimizing disease surveillance and multi-drug resistant microbes detection. Key words: Lung microbiome; Ventilator associated pneumonia; Metagenomics; 16S rRNA