Gut mycobiota alterations in patients with COVID-19 and H1N1 and associations with immune and gastrointestinal symptoms

Abstract

The relationship between gut microbes and COVID-19 or H1N1 flu is not fully understood. Here, we compared gut mycobiota of 67 COVID-19 patients, 35 H1N1 patients and 48 healthy controls (HCs) using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) 3-ITS4 sequencing. Fungal richness decreased in COVID-19 and H1N1 patients compared to HCs, but fungal diversity decreased in only H1N1 patients. Fungal mycobiota dysbiosis in both COVID-19 and H1N1 patients was mainly characterized by depletions of fungi such as Aspergillus, Penicillium, but several fungi, such as Candida parapsilosis, and Malassezia yamatoensis, were enriched in H1N1 patients. The altered fungal taxa were strongly associated with clinical features such as the incidence of diarrhoea, albumin. Gut mycobiota between COVID-19 patients with mild and severity symptoms are not different, as well as between COVID-19 patients in and out hospital. Therefore, gut mycobiota dysbiosis occur in covid-19 or H1N1 patients and do not improve until discharge.

The Salivary Microbiota, Cytokines, and Metabolome in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis Are Altered and More Proinflammatory than Those in Healthy Controls

“…Each reaction mixture was prepared at a 10-μl final volume and contained 5 μl of TB green, 0.4 μl (1 μM) of each primer, 0.2 μl of ROX reference dye, 2 μl of DNA template, and 2 μl of PCR-grade water. The reactions were hot-started at 95°C for 30 s, followed by 40 cycles of 95°C for 5 s and 56°C for 34 s, and the subsequent melt curve stage of 95°C for 15 s, 60°C for 1 min, and 95°C for 15 s. A plasmid harboring the PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene from E. coli ATCC 25922, which was similarly prepared as previously described ( 54 ), was used to produce a calibration curve of the 16S rRNA gene copy concentration versus the cycle quantification value. Calibration curves were generated using standards with 6 consecutive dilution steps (the number of bacteria ranged from 10 3 to 10 9 cells/ml).…”