Altered Infective Competence of the Human Gut Microbiome in COVID-19

Overview

Journal Microbiome

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialties Genetics
Microbiology

Date 2023 Mar 9

PMID 36894986

Authors

Laura de Nies

Valentina Galata

Camille Martin-Gallausiaux

Milena Despotovic

Susheel Bhanu Busi

Chantal J Snoeck

Lea Delacour

Deepthi Poornima Budagavi

Cedric Christian Laczny

Janine Habier

Paula-Cristina Lupu

Rashi Halder

Joelle V Fritz

Taina Marques

Estelle Sandt

Marc Paul OSullivan

Soumyabrata Ghosh

Venkata Satagopam

Rejko Kruger

Guy Fagherazzi

Markus Ollert

Feng Q Hefeng

Patrick May

Paul Wilmes

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Infections with SARS-CoV-2 have a pronounced impact on the gastrointestinal tract and its resident microbiome. Clear differences between severe cases of infection and healthy individuals have been reported, including the loss of commensal taxa. We aimed to understand if microbiome alterations including functional shifts are unique to severe cases or a common effect of COVID-19. We used high-resolution systematic multi-omic analyses to profile the gut microbiome in asymptomatic-to-moderate COVID-19 individuals compared to a control group.

Results: We found a striking increase in the overall abundance and expression of both virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance genes in COVID-19. Importantly, these genes are encoded and expressed by commensal taxa from families such as Acidaminococcaceae and Erysipelatoclostridiaceae, which we found to be enriched in COVID-19-positive individuals. We also found an enrichment in the expression of a betaherpesvirus and rotavirus C genes in COVID-19-positive individuals compared to healthy controls.

Conclusions: Our analyses identified an altered and increased infective competence of the gut microbiome in COVID-19 patients. Video Abstract.

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