Study on the Mechanism of Qing-Fei-Shen-Shi Decoction on Asthma Based on Integrated 16S rRNA Sequencing and Untargeted Metabolomics

Figure 4

QFSS treatment affected the gut microbiota community in asthmatic mice. (a) Dilution curve of each sample showed that the depth of sequence was reasonable and appropriate. (b, c) Alpha diversity of gut microbiota in each group was assessed through Shannon (b) and Simpson (c) indexes. There were no significant differences in alpha diversity of gut microbiota in each group (d, e) PCoA (d) and system clustering tree (e) indicated more similar beta diversity between HD-QFSS and control groups than that between asthma and control groups (C: control group; M: model group; Q: HD-QFSS group). (f, g) At the phylum level, QFSS treatment decreased the F-to-B ratio in asthma model mice. (h) At the genus level, QFSS treatment affected the relative abundances of gut microbiota including Lactobacillus, Dubosiella, Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, and Helicobacter. (i, j) Metabolic pathways were predicted using PICRUSt analysis based on the 16S rRNA sequencing data. The common pathways between control and model groups (i) and model and HD-QFSS groups (j) were marked in red. Control, model, and HD-QFSS groups (n = 6 per group).

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