Gut Mycobiota Alterations in Patients with COVID-19 and H1N1 Infections and Their Associations with Clinical Features

Overview

Journal Commun Biol

Specialty Biology

Date 2021 Apr 14

PMID 33850296

Citations 47

Authors

Longxian Lv

Silan Gu

Huiyong Jiang

Ren Yan

Yanfei Chen

Yunbo Chen

Rui Luo

Chenjie Huang

Haifeng Lu

Beiwen Zheng

Hua Zhang

Jiafeng Xia

Lingling Tang

Guoping Sheng

Lanjuan Li

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The relationship between gut microbes and COVID-19 or H1N1 infections is not fully understood. Here, we compared the gut mycobiota of 67 COVID-19 patients, 35 H1N1-infected patients and 48 healthy controls (HCs) using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) 3-ITS4 sequencing and analysed their associations with clinical features and the bacterial microbiota. Compared to HCs, the fungal burden was higher. Fungal mycobiota dysbiosis in both COVID-19 and H1N1-infected patients was mainly characterized by the depletion of fungi such as Aspergillus and Penicillium, but several fungi, including Candida glabrata, were enriched in H1N1-infected patients. The gut mycobiota profiles in COVID-19 patients with mild and severe symptoms were similar. Hospitalization had no apparent additional effects. In COVID-19 patients, Mucoromycota was positively correlated with Fusicatenibacter, Aspergillus niger was positively correlated with diarrhoea, and Penicillium citrinum was negatively correlated with C-reactive protein (CRP). In H1N1-infected patients, Aspergillus penicilloides was positively correlated with Lachnospiraceae members, Aspergillus was positively correlated with CRP, and Mucoromycota was negatively correlated with procalcitonin. Therefore, gut mycobiota dysbiosis occurs in both COVID-19 patients and H1N1-infected patients and does not improve until the patients are discharged and no longer require medical attention.

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