Effects of antibiotic therapy on the early development of gut microbiota and butyrate-producers in early infants

Jun Qiu; Sha Wu; Ruiwen Huang; Zhenyu Liao; Xiongfeng Pan; Kunyan Zhao; Yunlong Peng; Shiting Xiang; Yunhui Cao; Ye Ma; Zhenghui Xiao

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2024.1508217

Effects of antibiotic therapy on the early development of gut microbiota and butyrate-producers in early infants

Front Microbiol. 2025 Jan 7:15:1508217. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1508217. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Jun Qiu^#^{1

2}, Sha Wu^#^{1

2}, Ruiwen Huang³, Zhenyu Liao³, Xiongfeng Pan², Kunyan Zhao^{2

4}, Yunlong Peng^{2

5}, Shiting Xiang², Yunhui Cao^{1

2}, Ye Ma³, Zhenghui Xiao^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ The School of Pediatrics, Hengyang Medical School, University of South China, Hunan Children's Hospital, Hengyang, Hunan, China.
² Pediatrics Research Institute of Hunan Province, Hunan Children's Hospital, Changsha, Hunan, China.
³ Department of Neonatology, Hunan Children's Hospital, Changsha, Hunan, China.
⁴ The School of Public Health, University of South China, Hengyang, China.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
⁶ Department of Emergency Center, Hunan Children's Hospital, Changsha, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Antibiotics, as the most commonly prescribed class of drugs in neonatal intensive care units, have an important impact on the developing neonatal gut microbiota. Therefore, comprehending the effects of commonly used antibiotic therapy on the gut microbiota and butyrate-producers in early infants could provide information for therapeutic decision-making in the NICU.

Objectives: To explore the effects of antibiotic therapy on the early development of gut microbiota and butyrate-producers in early infants.

Methods: A total of 72 infants were included in the study. We performed 16S rRNA sequencing on stool swab samples collected from neonatal intensive care unit patients who received amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (AC, n = 10), moxalactam (ML, n = 28) and non-antibiotics (NA, n = 34). We then compared the taxonomic composition between treatment regimens, focusing on differences in butyrate-producers.

Results: Our study showed that there were significant differences in Shannon index (p = 0.033) and Beta diversity (p = 0.014) among the three groups. At the family level, compared with the other two groups, the relative abundance of Clostridiaceae (p < 0.001) and Veillonellaceae (p = 0.004) were significantly higher, while the relative abundance of Enterococcidae (p < 0.001) was significantly lower in the NA group. The relative abundance of Enterobacteriaceae (p = 0.022) in the AC group was greater than that in the other two groups. Additionally, butyrate-producers (p < 0.001), especially Clostridiaceae (p < 0.001), were noticeably more abundant in the NA group. The relative abundance of Clostridiaceae and butyrate-producers were the lowest in the ML group (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: We found that antibiotic therapy had an adverse impact on the initial development of gut microbiota and leaded to a reduction in the abundance of butyrate-producers, particularly Clostridiaceae. Furthermore, moxalactam had a more pronounced effect on the gut microbiota compared to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid.

Keywords: amoxicillin-clavulanic acid; antibiotics; butyrate-producers; gut microbiota; moxalactam.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This project was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China (Nos. 2023JJ30319 and 2021JJ40275), the Hunan Provincial Health Commission research project (Nos. D202312057523 and D20230529), the Clinical research project of Hunan Children’s Hospital (No. 2023CR01). Clinical Research (Translation) Center of Hunan Children’s Hospital, China, (No. 2023CR03) and the Changsha Soft Science Research Program Project (No. kh2302025).