Nasopharyngeal microbiota as a diagnostic biomarker for chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Background Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is a common inflammatory disorder with high postoperative recurrence rates. The nasopharyngeal microbiome may play a role in disease pathogenesis, but its diagnostic and prognostic utility remains unclear. This study characterized the nasopharyngeal microbiota in CRSwNP patients and evaluated its potential as a biomarker. Methods 32 nasopharyngeal swab samples from CRSwNP patients and 11 from controls were collected and subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Microbial diversity, species composition, and differential abundance were analyzed. A diagnostic model was constructed using LASSO regression, with feature selection performed entirely within a 10-fold cross-validation framework, and model stability was validated via 100 Bootstrap resampling iterations. For recurrence prediction, due to the limited number of events (n=10), only exploratory univariate screening was conducted, and the stability of candidate biomarkers was evaluated using Bootstrap validation with internal feature selection (300 iterations). Results CRSwNP patients exhibited significantly altered microbial composition at phylum and genus levels, as well as higher Shannon and Chao1 indices compared with controls, although the clinical and biological significance of this diversity increase requires further investigation. The three-genus combined diagnostic panel consisting of Fibrobacter , Ruminococcaceae_UCG-002 , and Staphylococcus demonstrated favorable diagnostic performance. For recurrence prediction, Helicobacter and Parabacteroides were identified as stable candidate biomarkers, with Bootstrap selection frequencies of 24.0% and 27.3%, respectively. The recurrence-related findings are exploratory hypothesis-generating results and do not possess clinical predictive capability; they require validation in an independent large-cohort study. Conclusions The nasopharyngeal microbiota of CRSwNP patients exhibited significant alterations. The three-genus combined diagnostic panel demonstrated good discriminatory ability, supporting its potential as a non-invasive diagnostic biomarker. The identification of recurrence-related markers provides candidate targets for future research; however, due to the limited sample size, they currently lack clinical predictive capability. This study provides foundational data for microbiome research and clinical translation in CRSwNP.
Language: English
Subfield: Otorhinolaryngology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7221659433