Affiliation:
1. Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, LV-1067 Riga, Latvia
Abstract
The gut microbiome plays a pivotal role in the modulation of host responses during viral infections, and recent studies have underscored its significance in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We aimed to investigate the dynamics and compositional changes in the gut microbiome of COVID-19 patients, addressing both the acute phase and the recovery process, with a particular focus on the emergence of post-COVID-19 conditions. Involving 146 COVID-19 patients and 110 healthy controls, this study employed a shotgun metagenomics approach for cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses with one- and three-month follow-ups. We observed a decline in taxonomic diversity among hospitalized COVID-19 patients compared to healthy controls, while a subsequent increase in alpha diversity was shown during the recovery process. A notable contribution of Enterococcus faecium was identified in the acute phase of the infection, accompanied by an increasing abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria (e.g., Roseburia, Lachnospiraceae_unclassified) during the recovery period. We highlighted a protective role of the Prevotella genus in the long-term recovery process and suggested a potential significance of population-specificity in the early gut microbiome markers of post-acute COVID-19 syndrome. Our study represents distinctive gut microbiome signatures in COVID-19, with potential diagnostic and prognostic implications, pinpointing potential modulators of the disease progression.
Funder
European Regional Development Fund
Subject
Inorganic Chemistry,Organic Chemistry,Physical and Theoretical Chemistry,Computer Science Applications,Spectroscopy,Molecular Biology,General Medicine,Catalysis
Reference37 articles.
1. COVID-19-Related Adolescent Mortality and Morbidity in Nineteen European Countries;Aguiar;Eur. J. Pediatr.,2023
2. Systematic Review of the Prevalence of Long COVID;Woodrow;Open Forum Infect. Dis.,2023
3. Gastrointestinal symptoms of 95 cases with SARS-CoV-2 infection;Lin;Gut,2020
4. Extrapulmonary manifestations of COVID-19;Gupta;Nat. Med.,2020
5. Wang, H., Xue, X., and Zhang, S. (2022). Microbiome and COVID-19: Long-Term and Complex Influencing Factors. Front. Microbiol., 13.