Comparing Profiles of the Urinary Microbiome between Patients with Urinary Disease

Urologic diseases interstitial cystitis (IC), overactive bladder (OAB), and urinary tract infection (UTI) affect tens of millions of people per year in the US alone. The human microbiome consists of a diverse community of bacteria (bacteriome) and viruses (virome) harbored in each individual that contributes to health and disease. Little is known about how the microbiome impacts urinary disorders. Using next-generation metagenomic sequencing, we characterized the urinary bacteriome and virome of patients with urinary disorders (IC, OAB, and UTI) and healthy controls. We show that the bacteriome was distinctly altered in patients by their respective urinary disorder. IC was characterized by a distinct prevalence of the genus Lactobacillus, while OAB was characterized by the genus Bacteroides, and UTI was characterized by Comamonas. IC, OAB, and UTI all also had significantly differed virome profiles from healthy individuals. In particular, we found that Lactobacillus phages were significantly associated with IC and Corynebacterium virus was associated with UTI samples, meanwhile no particular virus was correlated with OAB samples. Overall, we show that changes in the urinary microbiome are associated with incidence and spectrum of urinary diseases. These findings could lead to new microbiome modalities of treatment.