PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Ross Langley AU - Scott Griffin AU - Hannah Basten AU - Joanna Boxall AU - Kate Templeton AU - Stefan Unger TI - Viruses in the gut of children with bronchiolitis and viral induced wheeze – further insight into the gut-lung-axis AID - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2019.PA1002 DP - 2019 Sep 28 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - PA1002 VI - 54 IP - suppl 63 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/54/suppl_63/PA1002.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/54/suppl_63/PA1002.full SO - Eur Respir J2019 Sep 28; 54 AB - Background: Alterations in the gut microbiome can influence the incidence of wheeze and bronchiolitis. Little is known in regard to the association between enteric viral populations and their potential effects on respiratory health.Methods: Over 2 bronchiolitis seasons (2016-2019) children (0-10years) admitted to a tertiary hospital with a diagnosis of bronchiolitis (<1year old) or viral induced wheeze were recruited along with healthy age-matched control patients, excluding those with acute/chronic gastrointestinal conditions. Assays for 15 different viruses (Entero, Parecho, FluA/B, RSV, Adeno, Myco, PFlu1/2/3, MPV, Rhino, Nora, Rota, Boca) were performed by real-time PCR on nucleic acid extracted from stool samples during the illness.Results: Stool samples from 43 children with wheeze, 64 with bronchiolitis, and 87 controls were analysed. Viruses were detected significantly more frequent in stool of children with wheeze (7.1% wheeze, 3.7% controls, p<0.005) and bronchiolitis patients compared to controls (66.3% bronchiolitis, 33.7% controls, p<0.001). Rhinovirus was the most prevalent virus in both patient groups reaching significance in those with wheeze compared to controls (32.6% wheeze, 11.8% controls, p=0.02). Influenza A was detected significantly more frequently in the stool in the control compared with the bronchiolitis group (0% bronchiolitis, 16.7% controls, p=0.0016).Discussion: Respiratory viruses can be identified in the GI tract of patients during an acute respiratory illness. Although this may represent gut seeding from the respiratory tract there were significant differences between the cohorts. Disease severity and outcome may be influenced by “gut priming” of the immune system by viruses, which we plan to be further explore by deep genome sequencing analysis.FootnotesCite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2019; 54: Suppl. 63, PA1002.This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).