Metagenomics reveals a phylogenetically informed microbial signature associated with Morgellons disease

Abstract

Morgellons disease is a poorly understood and controversial condition characterized by cutaneous, often fibrous lesions, as well as variable systemic symptoms, such as fatigue, muscle and joint pain, and cognitive dysfunction. While there have been links suggested between Morgellons and known pathogens, most frequently Borrelia burgdorferi, the current medical consensus is that Morgellons disease is a form of delusional parasitosis, where patients falsely believe they are infected with parasites. Despite this controversy, there has not been a deep metagenomic exploration of Morgellons disease. Here, we use deep metagenomic sequencing and metagenomic analysis to characterize Morgellons lesions and unaffected skin from five individuals in a family cohort. We find that Morgellons lesions contain sequences poorly represented in existing databases, and demonstrate that lesions may harbor sequences with novel function. We further demonstrate that MAGs assembled from lesion samples vary taxonomically from MAGs assembled from unaffected skin, and that there is a phylogenetically informed microbial signature associated with Morgellons lesions. These findings motivate further investigation into a possible microbial etiology in Morgellons disease.