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

From BugSigDB
Needs review
study design
Citation
PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.
DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.
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


Needs review

Curated date: 2021/09/27

Curator: Claregrieve1

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1, Chloe, WikiWorks

Subjects

Location of subjects
China
Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled (if applicable)
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
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
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

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
unchanged
Richness Number of species
unchanged

Signature 1

Needs review

Curated date: 2021/09/27

Curator: Claregrieve1

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1

Source: Figure 4

Description: Differential abundance of microbial taxa between recovered healthcare workers and healthy controls

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

NCBI Quality ControlLinks
Actinomycetota
Escherichia
Intestinibacter
Flavonifractor
unclassified Escherichia
Thomasclavelia ramosa
Intestinibacter bartlettii
Enterocloster aldenensis
Enterocloster bolteae

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1

Signature 2

Needs review

Curated date: 2021/09/27

Curator: Claregrieve1

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1

Source: Figure 4

Description: Differential abundance of microbial taxa between recovered healthcare workers and healthy controls

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

NCBI Quality ControlLinks
Lachnospiraceae
Desulfovibrionaceae
Bilophila
Intestinimonas
Romboutsia
Faecalibacterium
Butyricicoccus
Dorea
Ruminococcus
Roseburia
Fusicatenibacter
Bilophila wadsworthia
Dialister invisus
Intestinimonas butyriciproducens
Romboutsia sedimentorum
Faecalibacterium prausnitzii
Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum
[Clostridium] colinum
Dorea longicatena
Blautia faecis
Blautia obeum
Roseburia inulinivorans
Ruminococcus bromii
Fusicatenibacter saccharivorans

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1