Reviewer's report
Title:Abnormal Fecal Microbiota Community and Functions in Patients with
Hepatitis B Liver Cirrhosis as Revealed by a Metagenomic Approach
Version: 1Date:14 October 2013
Reviewer: Matthias Zilbauer
Reviewer's report:
In their study Wei and colleagues have examined composition of gut microbiota
in healthy controls and patients with Hepatitis B liver cirrhosis (HBLC).
Specifically, they have extracted bacterial DNA from stool samples and used next
generation sequencing to assess composition and partly function of gut bacteria.
Their results demonstrate clear differences in the composition and function of gut
microbiota between controls and HBLC patients.
Overall the manuscript is well written, data presented in a concise way and
methodologies as well as statistical analysis seem sound.
Major criticism
1) Lack of novelty, i.e. what is new compared to the data published by Chen et al
in 2011 (Hepatology. 2011 Aug;54(2): Characterization of fecal microbial
communities in patients with liver cirrhosis)
2) What is the relevance to disease - e.g. chronic hepatitis B infection? How can
this data be used to improve treatment/management, use as biomarker?
3) One of the main and most important questions that remain is what is cause
and consequence? Most likely, changes in gut microbiota are the consequence
of cirrhosis; what would be interesting to know is in what way changes in the gut
microbiota influence disease progression.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Reviewer's report
Title:Abnormal Fecal Microbiota Community and Functions in Patients with
Hepatitis B Liver Cirrhosis as Revealed by a Metagenomic Approach
Version: 1Date:14 October 2013
Reviewer: Matthias Zilbauer
Reviewer's report:
In their study Wei and colleagues have examined composition of gut microbiota
in healthy controls and patients with Hepatitis B liver cirrhosis (HBLC).
Specifically, they have extracted bacterial DNA from stool samples and used next
generation sequencing to assess composition and partly function of gut bacteria.
Their results demonstrate clear differences in the composition and function of gut
microbiota between controls and HBLC patients.
Overall the manuscript is well written, data presented in a concise way and
methodologies as well as statistical analysis seem sound.
Major criticism
1) Lack of novelty, i.e. what is new compared to the data published by Chen et al
in 2011 (Hepatology. 2011 Aug;54(2): Characterization of fecal microbial
communities in patients with liver cirrhosis)
2) What is the relevance to disease - e.g. chronic hepatitis B infection? How can
this data be used to improve treatment/management, use as biomarker?
3) One of the main and most important questions that remain is what is cause
and consequence? Most likely, changes in gut microbiota are the consequence
of cirrhosis; what would be interesting to know is in what way changes in the gut
microbiota influence disease progression.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Abnormal Fecal Microbiota Community and Functions in Patients with
Hepatitis B Liver Cirrhosis as Revealed by a Metagenomic Approach
Version: 1Date:14 October 2013
Reviewer: Matthias Zilbauer
Reviewer's report:
In their study Wei and colleagues have examined composition of gut microbiota
in healthy controls and patients with Hepatitis B liver cirrhosis (HBLC).
Specifically, they have extracted bacterial DNA from stool samples and used next
generation sequencing to assess composition and partly function of gut bacteria.
Their results demonstrate clear differences in the composition and function of gut
microbiota between controls and HBLC patients.
Overall the manuscript is well written, data presented in a concise way and
methodologies as well as statistical analysis seem sound.
Major criticism
1) Lack of novelty, i.e. what is new compared to the data published by Chen et al
in 2011 (Hepatology. 2011 Aug;54(2): Characterization of fecal microbial
communities in patients with liver cirrhosis)
2) What is the relevance to disease - e.g. chronic hepatitis B infection? How can
this data be used to improve treatment/management, use as biomarker?
3) One of the main and most important questions that remain is what is cause
and consequence? Most likely, changes in gut microbiota are the consequence
of cirrhosis; what would be interesting to know is in what way changes in the gut
microbiota influence disease progression.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
assistant