Six-month follow-up of gut microbiota richness in patients with COVID-19

Abstract

Figure 1 Changes of faecal microbial communities in different stages (acute, convalescence, postconvalescence) of patients with COVID-19 (n=30), compared with uninfected controls (n=30). (A) α-Diversity, illustrated by microbiota richness (Chao 1 index), was reduced in COVID-19 (p<0.01, Wilcoxon rank-sum test). Boxes represent the 25th-75th percentile of the distribution; the median is shown as a thick line in the middle of the box; whiskers extend to values with 1.5 times the difference between the 25th and 75th percentiles. ***P<0.001. (B) Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) of Bray-Curtis distance analysis demonstrated that the overall microbial composition of patients with COVID-19 deviated from the uninfected controls (analysis of similarities, R = -0.201, p=0.001). (C) The same PCoA plot as (B), coloured by α-diversity measured by Chao 1 index.

The Gut Microbiota of Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19

“…We profiled the GM of 69 Italian patients affected by COVID-19 during the first wave in Italy. Consistent with previous reports on relatively small cohorts of Chinese patients (Gu et al, 2020;Zuo et al, 2020a;Chen et al, 2021;Zuo et al, 2021), their GM appears severely dysbiotic, with distinct signatures compared to healthy subjects. In addition to a loss of diversity, COVID-19 patients show profound GM destruction, with drastic reduction in the relative abundance of the dominant families Bacteroidaceae, Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae, well known to be associated with health and to produce SCFAs, i.e., microbial metabolites with a key, multifaceted role in human metabolic and immunological homeostasis (Koh et al, 2016).…”

“…, the complex microbial community hosted in our intestine, universally recognized as a key element for host physiology ( Gilbert et al., 2018 ; Turroni et al., 2018 ). The first reports in small cohorts of COVID-19 patients from China documented the presence of a dysbiotic state, also affecting the fungal component ( Gu et al., 2020 ; Zuo et al., 2020a ; Zuo et al.,2020b ; Chen et al., 2021 ; Zuo et al., 2021 ). This dysbiosis is featured by reduced diversity, depletion of beneficial commensals, mainly short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) producers from Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae families, and enrichment in opportunistic pathogens or pathobionts.…”

Probiotics as Adjunctive Treatment for Patients Contracted COVID-19: Current Understanding and Future Needs

“…These gut microbes are known to play a significant role in maintaining colonic homeostasis. Similarly, a six-month follow-up study found that the gut microbiota richness was compromised in COVID-19 patients compared with healthy individuals ( 8 ). Higher abundances of opportunistic pathogens, including Collinsella aerofaciens, Collinsella tanakaei, Streptococcus infantis , and Morganella morganii , accompanied by an elevated functional capacity for nucleotide de novo biosynthesis, amino acid biosynthesis and glycolysis, were observed in the fecal metagenomes of high SARS-CoV-2 infectivity patients, whilst the fecal metagenomes of low-to-none SARS-CoV-2 infectivity patients were characterized by abundant short-chain fatty acid producing-bacteria, such as Parabacteroides merdae, Bacteroides stercoris, Alistipes onderdonkii , and Lachnospiraceae bacterium ( 30 ).…”

“…Currently, multiple effective vaccines have been developed and are available to people worldwide. However, the decrease in gut microbiota richness and dysbiosis in patients with COVID-19 did not return to normal levels even six months after recovery, and the persistent gut dysbiosis was linked with the severity of disease and inflammatory reaction ( 8 ). Previous studies have shown that microbial diversity is a key determinant of microbial ecosystem stability ( 9 , 10 ).…”

“…A stable intestinal ecosystem enhances colonization resistance against opportunistic pathogens, while malnutrition hinders the recovery of intestinal health and lung function of patients with COVID-19 (11)(12)(13). Therefore, targeted auxiliary microecological therapy that helps restore healthy gut microbial communities is anticipated to accelerate full recovery from COVID-19 (8).…”