Linking the gut microbiota to persistent symptoms in survivors of COVID-19 after discharge

Study information

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Peace Sandy on 2024-1-15

study design

case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

34382150

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1007/s12275-021-1206-5

URI

Authors

Zhou Y, Zhang J, Zhang D, Ma WL, Wang X

Journal

Journal of microbiology (Seoul, Korea)

Year

2021

Keywords:

COVID-19, gut microbiota, recovered healthcare workers, symptoms after discharge

Several follow-up studies have found that COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) patients had persistent symptoms after discharge. Gut microbiota play an important role in human health and immune responses. Therefore, this study investigated the gut microbiota of recovered COVID-19 patients and the correlations between gut microbiota and persistent symptoms after discharge. Stool samples were collected from 15 recovered healthcare workers (HCWs) with COVID-19 at three months after discharge, in addition, stool samples were collected from 14 healthy controls (HCs) to perform 16S rRNA gene sequencing between May and July 2020. Compared with HCs, recovered HCWs had reduced bacterial diversity at three months after discharge, with a significantly higher relative abundance of opportunistic pathogens, and a significantly lower relative abundance of beneficial bacteria. In addition, Escherichia unclassified was positively correlated with persistent symptoms at three months after discharge, including fatigue (r = 0.567, p = 0.028), chest tightness after activity (r = 0.687, p = 0.005), and myalgia (r = 0.523, p = 0.045). Intestinibacter bartlettii was positively correlated with anorexia (r = 0.629, p = 0.012) and fatigue (r = 0.545, p = 0.036). However, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii was negatively correlated with chest tightness after activity (r = -0.591, p = 0.02), and Intestinimonas butyriciproducens was negatively correlated with cough (r = -0.635, p = 0.011). In conclusion, the gut microbiota of recovered HCWs with COVID-19 at three months after discharge was different from that of HCs, and altered gut microbiota was correlated with persistent symptoms after discharge, highlighting that gut microbiota may play an important role in the recovery of patients with COVID-19.

Experiment 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Peace Sandy on 2024-1-15

Curated date: 2021/09/27

Curator: Claregrieve1

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1, Chloe, WikiWorks, Peace Sandy

Subjects

Location of subjects: China

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Homo sapiens

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Feces Cow dung,Cow pat,Droppings,Dung,Excrement,Excreta,Faeces,Fecal material,Fecal matter,Fewmet,Frass,Guano,Matières fécales@fr,Merde@fr,Ordure,Partie de la merde@fr,Piece of shit,Porción de mierda@es,Portion of dung,Portion of excrement,Portion of faeces,Portion of fecal material,Portion of fecal matter,Portion of feces,Portion of guano,Portion of scat,Portionem cacas,Scat,Spoor,Spraint,Stool,Teil der fäkalien@de,Feces,feces

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: COVID-19 2019 novel coronavirus,2019 novel coronavirus infection,2019-nCoV,2019-nCoV infection,beta-CoV,beta-CoVs,betacoronavirus,coronavirus disease 2019,SARS-coronavirus 2,SARS-CoV-2,severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2,severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infectious disease,β-coronavirus,β-CoV,β-CoVs,COVID-19,cOVID-19

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: Healthy controls

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: Recovered COVID-19 patients

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: Health-care workers who recovered from COVID-19 and were discharged from the hospital between May and July 2020

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 14

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 15

Antibiotics exclusion Number of days without antibiotics usage (if applicable) and other antibiotics-related criteria used to exclude participants (if any): 3 months

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V3-V4

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: relative abundances

Statistical test: Mann-Whitney (Wilcoxon)

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: No

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness: decreased

Chao1 Abundance-based estimator of species richness: decreased

Richness Number of species: decreased

Signature 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Peace Sandy on 2024-1-15

Curated date: 2021/09/27

Curator: Claregrieve1

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1, Peace Sandy

Source: Figure 4

Description: Taxonomic differences of gut microbiota between recovered HCWs and HCs. Comparison of relative abundance at the bacterial phylum (A), family (B), genus (C), and species (D) between the two groups. p-value < 0.05 is considered to be statistically significant, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in Recovered COVID-19 patients

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Actinomycetota
Enterocloster aldenensis
Enterocloster bolteae
Escherichia
Flavonifractor
Intestinibacter
Intestinibacter bartlettii
Thomasclavelia ramosa
unclassified Escherichia
Flavonifractor plautii
Bifidobacterium catenulatum
Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1, Peace Sandy

Signature 2

Edit History Delete

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Peace Sandy on 2024-1-15

Curated date: 2021/09/27

Curator: Claregrieve1

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1, Peace Sandy

Source: Figure 4

Description: Taxonomic differences of gut microbiota between recovered HCWs and HCs. Comparison of relative abundance at the bacterial phylum (A), family (B), genus (C), and species (D) between the two groups. p-value < 0.05 is considered to be statistically significant, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in Recovered COVID-19 patients

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Bilophila
Bilophila wadsworthia
Blautia faecis
Blautia obeum
Butyricicoccus
Desulfovibrionaceae
Dialister invisus
Dorea
Dorea longicatena
Faecalibacterium
Faecalibacterium prausnitzii
Fusicatenibacter
Fusicatenibacter saccharivorans
Intestinimonas
Intestinimonas butyriciproducens
Lachnospiraceae
Romboutsia
Romboutsia sedimentorum
Roseburia
Roseburia inulinivorans
Ruminococcus
Ruminococcus bromii

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1, Peace Sandy