Evaluating the Health Risks of Pneumonia from Airborne Bacterial Communities Using 16S rDNA Sequences of Pneumonia-related Pathogens.

Abstract Objective Airborne microbial communities include a significant number of uncultured and poorly characterized bacteria. No effective method currently exists to evaluate the health risks of such complex bacterial populations, particularly for pneumonia. Methods We developed a method to evaluate risks from airborne microorganisms, guided by the principle that closer evolutionary relationships reflect similar biological characteristics, and thus used 16S rDNA sequences of 10 common pneumonia-related bacterial pathogens. We calculated a risk of breath-related (Rbr) index of airborne bacterial communities and verified effectiveness with artificial flora and a clinical project. Results We suggested applying Rbr80 to evaluate the health risks of airborne bacterial communities that comprise 80% of dominant operational taxonomic units (OTUs). The feasibility of Rbr80 was confirmed by artificial flora and by pneumonia data from a hospital. A high Rbr80 value indicated a high risk of pneumonia from airborne bacterial communities. Conclusion Rbr80 is an effective index to evaluate the pneumonia-associated risk from airborne bacteria. Values of Rbr80 greater than 15.40 are considered high risk.