Background To investigate the potential beneficial effect of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) on gastrointestinal symptoms, gut dysbiosis and immune status in discharged COVID-19 patients. Case presentation A total of 11 COVID-19 patients were recruited in April, 2020, about one month on average after they were discharged from the hospital. All subjects received FMT for 4 consecutive days by oral capsule administrations with 10 capsules for each day. In total, 5 out of 11 patients reported to be suffered from gastrointestinal symptoms, which were improved after FMT. After FMT, alterations of B cells were observed, which was characterized as decreased naive B cell (P = 0.012) and increased memory B cells (P = 0.001) and non-switched B cells (P = 0.012).The microbial community richness indicated by operational taxonomic units number, observed species and Chao1 estimator was marginally increased after FMT. Gut microbiome composition of discharged COVID-19 patients differed from that of the general population at both phylum and genera level, which was characterized with a lower proportion of Firmicutes (41.0%) and Actinobacteria (4.0%), higher proportion of Bacteroidetes (42.9%) and Proteobacteria (9.2%). FMT can partially restore the gut dysbiosis by increasing the relative abundance of Actinobacteria (15.0%) and reducing Proteobacteria (2.8%) at the phylum level. At the genera level, Bifidobacterium and Faecalibacterium had significantly increased after FMT. Conclusions After FMT, altered peripheral lymphocyte subset, restored gut microbiota and alleviated gastrointestinal disorders were observe, suggesting that FMT may serve as a potential therapeutic and rehabilitative intervention for the COVID-19.

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Background Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) plays an important role in tumorigenesis and progression. Despite this, the role of Reactome GABA receptor activation (RGRA) on gastric cancer (GC) remains unclear. This study was intended to screen RGRA-related genes in GC and investigate their prognostic value. Methods GSVA algorithm was used to assess the score of RGRA. GC patients were divided into two subtypes based on the median score of RGRA. GSEA, functional enrichment analysis, and immune infiltration analysis were performed between the two subgroups. Then, differentially expressed analysis, and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) were used to identify RGRA-related genes. The prognosis and expression of core genes were analyzed and validated in the TCGA database, GEO database, and clinical samples. ssGSEA and ESTIMATE algorithms were used to assess the immune cell infiltration in the low- and high-core genes subgroups. Results High-RGRA subtype had a poor prognosis and activated immune-related pathways, as well as an activated immune microenvironment. ATP1A2 was identified to be the core gene. The expression of ATP1A2 was associated with the overall survival rate and tumor stage, and its expression was down-regulated in GC patients. Furthermore, ATP1A2 expression was positively correlated with the level of immune cells, including B cells, CD8 T cells, cytotoxic cells, DC, eosinophils, macrophages, mast cells, NK cells, and T cells. Conclusion Two RGRA-related molecular subtypes were identified that could predict the outcome in GC patients. ATP1A2 was a core immunoregulatory gene and was associated with prognosis and immune cell infiltration in GC.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which was outbreak in December 2019 Wuhan, China, has spread to more than 100 countries. In addition to respiratory symptoms, COVID-19 can also cause some digestive symptoms such as nausea and diarrhea. As a variety of respiratory diseases which are associated with a dysbiosis in both airway microbiota and the intestinal microbiota, COVID-19 may cause digestive symptoms through a constant cross-talk between the system which is known as the Gut-Lung Axis. Additionally, lymphopenia and hypercytokinemia were also common in COVID-19 patients which suggest that COVID-19 could compromise the immune system. Given the fact that gut microbiota not only could maintain immune homeostasis and immune responses at local mucosal surfaces, but also has distal protective effects and protect against respiratory virus. FMT is an effective way to enhance immunity and would be a potential therapy for individuals with viral infection. However, currently no direct clinical evidence proved that modulation of gut microbiota has the therapeutic role in treatment of COVID-19, from the perspective of microbiota and immunity after viral infection, we speculate that targeting gut microbiota might be a new therapeutic option or at least adjuvant therapeutic choice. In this Personal View, we describe the five aspects: COVID-19 and compromised immunity system, Microbiota, immune system and viral infection, FMT, immunity and virus infection, potential application of FMT in the treatment of COVID-19.