Mapping the output of the global literature on the links between gut microbiota and COVID-19

Abstract

Background The term “human microbiota” refers to populations of microorganisms that live harmoniously in co-existence with humans. They contribute significantly to the host's immunological response when confronted with a respiratory viral infection. However, little is known about the relationship between the human microbiome and COVID-19. Therefore, our objective is to perform a bibliometric analysis to explore the overall structure and hotspots of research activity on the links between microbiota and COVID-19 at the global level. Methods The research literature on the microbiota and COVID-19 published between 2020 and 2022 was obtained from the Scopus database. Bibliometric analysis and network visualization were performed with VOSviewer. Results Of the 701 publications selected, the USA contributed the most (n = 157, 22.40%), followed by China (n = 118, 16.83%) and Italy (n = 82, 11.70%). Hotspots in this field were “COVID-19 is associated with an altered upper respiratory tract microbiome,” “the effect of antibiotics on the gut microbiome,” as well as “patient nutrition and probiotic therapy in COVID-19.” Conclusions The links between microbiota and COVID-19 remain an urgent concern at present, and the use of probiotics or/and antibiotics during the pandemic needs to be further improved. This landscape analysis of the links between the microbiota and COVID-19 will provide a basis for future research.

A comprehensive perspective on the interaction between gut microbiota and COVID-19 vaccines

“…Previous cohort studies have not been able to resolve the microbiota at the species and strain level, as they only used 16S rRNA sequencing instead of shotgun metagenomics 119 , 120 . Moreover, interventional studies that tested how antibiotics or probiotics affect vaccination reactions have been too small to detect significant effects of the microbiota; however, they indicate that the microbiota may influence antibodies reactions more in people with lower preexisting immunity, and the innate immune responses or metabolome can be greatly impacted by the gut microbiota 40 , 121 .…”

Unveiling the hidden world of gut health: Exploring cutting-edge research through visualizing randomized controlled trials on the gut microbiota

“…It showcases the advantages of bibliometric analysis in evaluating research productivity in this field in a standardized way. Second, although we used a comprehensive list of keywords based on previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses[ 54 - 59 ] and bibliometric studies[ 24 , 31 , 42 , 60 , 61 ], it is possible that certain pertinent keywords could be overlooked, which could result in false negative results. Third, our selection of the ten most highly cited papers may have been influenced by the time-dependent nature of citation searches, which tend to favor older publications.…”

“…Step 1: We entered the terminology associated with the gut microbiota, derived from various sources, including PubMed Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), previous systematic and meta-analyses of the gut microbiota[ 54 - 59 ], and bibliometric studies[ 24 , 31 , 42 , 60 , 61 ], into the Scopus research engine. All selected terms were placed in the “Article Title” section.…”