Objective:

To characterize preoperative and postoperative gut microbiota and metabolic signatures in patients with intracranial space-occupying lesions, aiming to construct a predictive model for postoperative pneumonia (POP) and understand the relationship between these factors.

Approach:

Key Findings:

• Surgical stress reduced microbial diversity, with significant preoperative depletion of Roseburia in the POP group, highlighting its potential role in infection risk.
• Metabolomic analysis indicated a preoperative 'metabolic deficiency' state in POP patients, particularly in fructose and mannose metabolism, suggesting targets for intervention.
• Preoperative Roseburia abundance positively correlated with the anti-inflammatory metabolite 1-methylnicotinamide, indicating a protective role.
• A metabolic signature of the top 10 preoperative metabolites predicted POP with an AUC of 1.0, demonstrating high predictive accuracy.

Interpretation:

Disruption of metabolic homeostasis due to preoperative gut microbiota depletion is associated with increased susceptibility to postoperative pneumonia.

Limitations:

• The study was limited to a single center, which may affect the generalizability of the findings; future studies should include multiple centers.
• The sample size of 50 patients may limit the robustness of the predictive model; larger studies are needed to validate these findings.

Conclusion:

Monitoring preoperative metabolic signatures can help identify high-risk individuals for postoperative pneumonia, providing a pathway for early intervention and improved patient outcomes.

Source

Based on findings from:

Preoperative gut microbiota depletion and metabolomic signatures predict postoperative pneumonia in patients with intracranial space-occupying lesions: a multi-omics prospective cohort study

Juan Chen, Zhiyu Li, Yewen Zhan, Qianqian Tan, Jin Li, Hong Pu. Frontiers In Immunology, 2026.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2026.1839465/full

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This content is an AI-generated, fully rewritten summary based on a published scholarly article. It does not reproduce the original text and is not a substitute for the original publication. Readers are encouraged to consult the source for full context, data, and methodology.