Associations between indoor microbiome exposure and allergic and
non-allergic rhinitis for junior high school students in Terengganu,
Malaysia
Abstract
Rhinitis is one of the most prevalent diseases in the world. Indoor
microbiome is confirmed to associate with respiratory diseases such as
asthma and infections, but no study reported the association between
indoor microbiome and the occurrence of rhinitis. In this study, 370
students were randomly selected from 8 junior schools in Terengganu,
Malaysia, and self-administered questionnaire and skin prick tests were
conducted to define the allergic and non-allergic rhinitis among
students. Vacuum dust was collected from the floor and chair/desk
surfaces in the classrooms, and culture-independent high-resolution
amplicon sequencing and quantitative PCR were conducted to characterize
the absolute concentration of bacterial and fungal species. Hierarchical
logistic regression was applied in the association analyses. We found
similar microbial associations for the students with allergic and
non-allergic rhinitis. The microbial richness in Gammaproteobacteria was
protectively associated with allergic and non-allergic rhinitis (p =
0.02 and 0.04), and total fungal richness was positively associated with
allergic and non-allergic rhinitis (p = 0.01 and 0.03). The absolute
concentration of two bacterial species, Aeromonas enteropelogenes and
Brasilonema bromeliae, were associated with both types of rhinitis, and
six bacterial and one fungal species was associated with either allergic
and non-allergic rhinitis (p < 0.005). Four species previously
reported as facultative pathogens, including A. enteropelogenes,
Escherichia fergusonii, Enterobacter xiangfangensis and Streptococcus
salivarius, were protectively (negatively) associated with rhinitis. A
higher concentration of two radiation-resistant species, including
Deinococcus gobiensis and Deinococcus grandis, were associated with an
increased odds of rhinitis.