{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,20]],"date-time":"2026-10-20T18:45:36Z","timestamp":1792521936506,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,12]],"date-time":"2026-06-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1781222400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Immunol."],"abstract":"\n Background<\/jats:title>\n Rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) is a severe extra-articular manifestation with limited diagnostic biomarkers. While gut microbiota dysbiosis contributes to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) pathogenesis, its specific role in RA-ILD remains poorly characterized.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Methods<\/jats:title>\n We performed shotgun metagenomic sequencing on fecal samples from 41 participants: 10 RA-ILD patients, 20 RA patients without ILD (RA-non-ILD), and 11 healthy controls (HCs). We assessed alpha and beta diversity, differential abundance (Wilcoxon rank-sum tests with FDR correction), Spearman correlations with clinical parameters, microbial co-occurrence networks, and random forest classification.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results<\/jats:title>\n \n Alpha and beta diversity did not differ significantly among groups. After FDR correction, no genus differed significantly between RA-ILD and RA-non-ILD. Exploratory analysis (uncorrected\n P<\/jats:italic>\n \u00a0&lt;\u00a00.05) revealed enrichment of\n Escherichia\/Shigella<\/jats:italic>\n in RA-ILD (11.72% vs. 2.66%,\n P<\/jats:italic>\n \u00a0=\u00a00.003) and depletion of\n Roseburia<\/jats:italic>\n (1.05% vs. 3.77%,\n P<\/jats:italic>\n \u00a0=\u00a00.005) and\n Ruminococcus<\/jats:italic>\n (5.98% vs. 7.85%,\n P<\/jats:italic>\n \u00a0=\u00a00.032), while\n Faecalibacterium<\/jats:italic>\n showed a trend toward depletion without reaching nominal significance (4.45% vs. 4.66%,\n P<\/jats:italic>\n \u00a0=\u00a00.409). Correlation analysis revealed a dichotomous pattern: pro-inflammatory genera correlated positively with disease activity, while butyrate-producing genera correlated negatively. Co-occurrence network analysis showed RA patients had a more complex network than HC and RA-ILD. Random forest classification identified\n Bifidobacterium<\/jats:italic>\n , unclassified_ Oscillospiraceae, and unclassified_Lachnospiraceae as top discriminators between HC and RA, and unclassified_ Bacteroidaceae,\n Parabacteroides<\/jats:italic>\n , and\n Blautia<\/jats:italic>\n for RA-ILD vs RA.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n \n RA-ILD is associated with specific gut microbial alterations\u2014notably\u00a0\n Escherichia\/Shigella<\/jats:italic>\n enrichment and depletion of\n Roseburia<\/jats:italic>\n and\n Ruminococcus<\/jats:italic>\n \u2014despite preserved overall diversity. These changes correlate with systemic inflammation and suggest a role for the gut microbiota in RA-ILD pathogenesis via the gut-lung axis. The identified taxa warrant validation as candidate biomarkers in larger cohorts.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fimmu.2026.1868704","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,12]],"date-time":"2026-06-12T04:43:58Z","timestamp":1781239438000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Metagenomic characterization of gut microbiota in rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease: taxonomic shifts and clinical correlations"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Ran","family":"Fan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Jiangsu Province (Suqian) Hospital","place":["Suqian, Jiangsu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qifeng","family":"Zang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Life Sciences, Bengbu Medical University","place":["Bengbu, Anhui, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yan","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Jiangsu Province (Suqian) Hospital","place":["Suqian, Jiangsu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ling","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Suqian First Hospital","place":["Suqian, Jiangsu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jun","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Suqian First Hospital","place":["Suqian, Jiangsu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yinshan","family":"Zang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Jiangsu Province (Suqian) Hospital","place":["Suqian, Jiangsu, China"]},{"name":"Department of 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