Gastrointestinal symptoms of long COVID-19 related to the ectopic colonization of specific bacteria that move between the upper and lower alimentary tract and alterations in serum metabolites

From BugSigDB
Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Folakunmi on 2024-2-23
Citation
PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.
DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.
URI
Authors
Zhang D, Weng S, Xia C, Ren Y, Liu Z, Xu Y, Yang X, Wu R, Peng L, Sun L, Zhu J, Liang X, Jia Y, Wang H, Chen Q, Liu D, Chen Y, Guo H, Han X, Jin Z, Chen C, Yang X, Li Z, Huang H
Journal
BMC medicine
Year
2023
Keywords:
Coronavirus, Gut microbiome, Microbial functions, Serum metabolomics
BACKGROUND: Since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, many COVID-19 variants have emerged, causing several waves of pandemics and many infections. Long COVID-19, or long-term sequelae after recovery from COVID-19, has aroused worldwide concern because it reduces patient quality of life after rehabilitation. We aimed to characterize the functional differential profile of the oral and gut microbiomes and serum metabolites in patients with gastrointestinal symptoms associated with long COVID-19. METHODS: We prospectively collected oral, fecal, and serum samples from 983 antibiotic-naïve patients with mild COVID-19 and performed a 3-month follow-up postdischarge. Forty-five fecal and saliva samples, and 25 paired serum samples were collected from patients with gastrointestinal symptoms of long COVID-19 at follow-up and from healthy controls, respectively. Eight fecal and saliva samples were collected without gastrointestinal symptoms of long COVID-19 at follow-up. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing of fecal samples and 2bRAD-M sequencing of saliva samples were performed on these paired samples. Two published COVID-19 gut microbiota cohorts were analyzed for comparison. Paired serum samples were analyzed using widely targeted metabolomics. RESULTS: Mild COVID-19 patients without gastrointestinal symptoms of long COVID-19 showed little difference in the gut and oral microbiota during hospitalization and at follow-up from healthy controls. The baseline and 3-month samples collected from patients with gastrointestinal symptoms associated with long COVID-19 showed significant differences, and ectopic colonization of the oral cavity by gut microbes including 27 common differentially abundant genera in the Proteobacteria phylum, was observed at the 3-month timepoint. Some of these bacteria, including Neisseria, Lautropia, and Agrobacterium, were highly related to differentially expressed serum metabolites with potential toxicity, such as 4-chlorophenylacetic acid, 5-sulfoxymethylfurfural, and estradiol valerate. CONCLUSIONS: Our study characterized the changes in and correlations between the oral and gut microbiomes and serum metabolites in patients with gastrointestinal symptoms associated with long COVID-19. Additionally, our findings reveal that ectopically colonized bacteria from the gut to the oral cavity could exist in long COVID-19 patients with gastrointestinal symptoms, with a strong correlation to some potential harmful metabolites in serum.

Experiment 1


Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Folakunmi on 2024-2-23

Curated date: 2023/10/07

Curator: Chiwendeee

Revision editor(s): Chiwendeee, Folakunmi

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
Post-COVID-19 disorder Post-COVID-19 disorder,post-COVID-19 disorder
Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies
healthy controls and mild COVID-19 patients
Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies
long COVID-19
Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group
patients with gastrointestinal symptoms associated with long COVID-19 at 3 months follow-up
Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group
70
Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group
45
Antibiotics exclusion Number of days without antibiotics usage (if applicable) and other antibiotics-related criteria used to exclude participants (if any)
3 months before enrollment

Lab analysis

Sequencing type
WMS
16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene
Not specified
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
T-Test
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)?
Yes
Matched on Factors on which subjects have been matched on in a case-control study
age, sex

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness
decreased
Chao1 Abundance-based estimator of species richness
decreased
Simpson Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species evenness
decreased
Richness Number of species
decreased

Signature 1

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Folakunmi on 2024-2-23

Curated date: 2023/10/08

Curator: Chiwendeee

Revision editor(s): Chiwendeee, Folakunmi

Source: Figure 3H

Description: The top 20 microbial species with significantly lower relative abundance in fecal samples of follow-up patients compared with normal samples or mild patients.

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in long COVID-19

NCBI Quality ControlLinks
Haemophilus parainfluenzae
Prevotella melaninogenica
Neisseria flavescens
Streptococcus mitis
Alloprevotella sp.
Neisseria subflava
Porphyromonas somerae
Alloprevotella sp. oral taxon 473
Fusobacterium pseudoperiodonticum
Alloprevotella tannerae
Prevotella intermedia
Streptococcus oralis
Prevotella sp. ICM33
Prevotella pallens
Streptococcus pneumoniae
Veillonella tobetsuensis
Candidatus Saccharibacteria bacterium
Streptococcus infantis
Actinomyces sp. ICM47
Porphyromonas sp. KLE 1280

Revision editor(s): Chiwendeee, Folakunmi

Experiment 2


Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Folakunmi on 2024-2-23

Curated date: 2024/02/23

Curator: Folakunmi

Revision editor(s): Folakunmi

Differences from previous experiment shown

Subjects

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology
Saliva Sailva normalis,Saliva atomaris,Saliva molecularis,Salivary gland secretion,Saliva,saliva


Lab analysis

Statistical Analysis

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness
decreased
Chao1 Abundance-based estimator of species richness
decreased
Simpson Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species evenness
decreased
Richness Number of species
decreased

Signature 1

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Folakunmi on 2024-2-23

Curated date: 2024/02/23

Curator: Folakunmi

Revision editor(s): Folakunmi

Source: Figure 4K

Description: The top 20 microbial species with significantly high relative abundance in saliva samples of follow-up patients compared to normal samples or mild patients.

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in long COVID-19

NCBI Quality ControlLinks
Porphyromonas pasteri
Neisseria subflava
Neisseria flavescens
Prevotella melaninogenica
Veillonella rogosae
Haemophilus parainfluenzae
Veillonella tobetsuensis
Prevotella pallens
Lautropia mirabilis
Streptococcus salivarius
Prevotella jejuni
Rothia mucilaginosa
Neisseria elongata
Porphyromonas gingivalis

Revision editor(s): Folakunmi