Page created on June 20, 2021

Last update: July 4, 2021

The following quote from the translated abstract of the article Management Of COVID-19: The Zhejiang Experience Kaijin Xu et al., from the Journal Of Zhejiang University, mentioned:

Some patients with COVID-19 showed intestinal microbial dysbiosis with decreased probiotics such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, so nutritional and gastrointestinal function should be assessed for all patients. Nutritional support and application of prebiotics or probiotics were suggested to regulate the balance of intestinal microbiota and reduce the risk of secondary infection due to bacterial translocation.

As far as we could found, this text is the first report (published in the first half of May 2020) mentioning the influence of COVID19 on the gut microbiome composition. More information has been published in recent months about the links between this pandemic and the microbiome. This search included not only the respiratory microbiome but also those communities from the gut. 

In this post, we present a list of remarkable papers covering connections between microbiome and COVID19. If you have more suggestions, please tell us in the comments.

General and Respiratory Tract Microbiome

Metatranscriptomic Characterization Of COVID-19 Identified A Host Transcriptional Classifier Associated With Immune Signaling –  Haocheng Zhang – Clinical Infectious Diseases (published in May 2020)

The Lung Tissue Microbiota Features Of 20 Deceased Patients With COVID-19 – Jun Fan – The Journal Of Infection  (published in June 2020)

Nasopharyngeal Microbiota Profiling Of SARS-CoV-2 Infected Patients – Flavio De Maio- Biological Procedures Online (published in July 2020)

Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing Of Nasopharyngeal Specimens Collected From Confirmed and Suspect COVID-19 Patients – Heba H Mostafa – mBio  (published in November 2020)

Feasibility of using alternative swabs and storage solutions for paired SARS-CoV-2 detection and microbiome analysis in the hospital environment – Jeremiah J. Minich – Microbiome (published in January 2021)

Variability In Digestive And Respiratory Tract Ace2 expression Is associated with the microbiome – Sean T Koester – PloS One (published in March 2021)

Functional Profiling Of COVID-19 Respiratory Tract Microbiomes – Niina Haiminen – Scientific Reports (published in March 2021)

Nasopharyngeal Microbial Communities of Patients Infected With SARS-CoV-2 That Developed COVID-19 – Maria Paz Ventero – Frontiers in Microbiology (Published in March, 2021)

Preprint: Signatures Of COVID-19 Severity And Immune Response In The Respiratory Tract microbiome – Carter Merenstein – MedRxiv (available from April 2021)

Preprint: Plasma Microbiome In COVID-19 Subjects: An Indicator Of Gut Barrier Defects And dysbiosis – Ram Prasad – BioRxiv (available from April 2021)

Evaluation Of Superinfection, Antimicrobial Usage, And Airway Microbiome With metagenomic sequencing in COVID-19 patients: A cohort study in Shanghai – Qing Miao – Journal Of Microbiology, Immunology, And Infection (published in April 2021)

COVID-19 Influences Lung Microbiota Dynamics And Favors The Emergence Of Rare infectious diseases: A case report of Hafnia alvei pneumonia – Salvatore Lucio Cutuli – Journal Of Critical Care (published in April 2021)

The Lower Respiratory Tract Microbiome Of Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19 – Paolo Gaibani – Scientific Reports (available in May 2021)

Metagenomic Analysis Reveals Oropharyngeal Microbiota Alterations In Patients With COVID-19 –  Shengli Ma – Signal Transduction And Targeted Therapy (available in May 2021)

Preprint: Acute SARS-CoV-2 Infection Is Associated With An Expansion Of Bacteria Pathogens In the nose including Pseudomonas aeruginosa – Nicholas S Rhoades – BioRxiv (available from May 2021)

Nasopharyngeal Microbiota In SARS-CoV-2 Positive And Negative Patients – Phillip A Engen – Biological Procedures Online (published in June 2021)

SARS-CoV-2 Detection Status Associates With Bacterial Community Composition In patients and the hospital environment – Clarisse Marotz – Microbiome (published in June 2021)

Gut Microbiome studies

Gnotobiotic Rats Reveal That Gut Microbiota Regulates Colonic MRNA Of Ace2, The Receptor for SARS-CoV-2 Infectivity – Tao Yang- Hypertension (Published in May 2020)

Alterations In Gut Microbiota Of Patients With COVID-19 During Time Of Hospitalization – Tao Zuo – Gastroenterology (Published in May 2020)

Alterations In Fecal Fungal Microbiome Of Patients With COVID-19 During Time Of Hospitalization until Discharge – Tao Zuo – Gastroenterology (published in June 2020)

Maintaining standard volumes, efficacy and safety, of fecal microbiota transplantation for C. difficile infection during the COVID-19 pandemic: A prospective cohort study – Gianluca Ianiro – Digestive and Liver Diseases (Published in September 2020)

Gut Microbiota Composition Reflects Disease Severity And Dysfunctional Immune responses in patients with COVID-19 – Yun Kit Yeoh – Gut (published in January 2021)

The Faecal Metabolome In COVID-19 Patients Is Altered And Associated With Clinical features and gut microbes – Longxian Lv – Analytica Chimica Acta (published in January 2021)

The Intestinal And Oral Microbiomes Are Robust Predictors Of Covid-19 Severity The Main Predictor Of COVID-19-related Fatality – Doyle V. Ward – MedRxiv (available from Jan 2021)

16S rRNA Gene Sequencing Of Rectal Swab In Patients Affected By COVID-19 – Antonio Mazzarelli – PloS One (published in February 2021)

Investigation Of Nasal/Oropharyngeal Microbial Community Of COVID-19 Patients By 16S rDNA Sequencing – Martina Rueca – International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health (published in February 2021)

Integrated Gut Virome And Bacteriome Dynamics In COVID-19 Patients – Jiabao Cao – Gut Microbes  (published in March 2021)

Six-month Follow-up Of Gut Microbiota Richness In Patients With COVID-19 – Yanfei Chen – Gut (published in April 2021)

Gut Mycobiota Alterations In Patients With COVID-19 And H1N1 Infections And Their associations with clinical features – Longxian Lv – Communications Biology (published in April 2021)

Gut Microbiome And Resistome Changes During The First Wave Of The COVID-19 Pandemic in comparison with pre-pandemic travel-related changes – Ye Peng – Journal Of Travel Medicine (published in May 2021)

Gut microbiota, inflammation and molecular signatures of host response to infection – Wanglong Gou – Journal of Genetics and Genomics (published in May 2021)

Gut Microbiota May Not Be Fully Restored In Recovered COVID-19 Patients After 3-Month Recovery – Yu Tian – Frontiers In Nutrition (published in May 2021)

Gut Microbiome Composition Is Associated With COVID-19 Disease Severity – Pooja Patel – Gastroenterology  (published in May 2021)

The Gut Microbiome Of COVID-19 Recovered Patients Returns To Uninfected Status In A minority-dominated United States cohort – Rachel C Newsome – Gut Microbes (published in June 2021)

Reversion Of Gut Microbiota During The Recovery Phase In Patients With Asymptomatic or Mild COVID-19: Longitudinal Study  – Han-Na Kim – Microorganisms (published in June 2021)

Reviews, hypotheses, and other related topics

Divulgation post: Gut reaction: How the gut microbiome may influence the severity of COVID-19 – Shirin Moossavi and Marie-Claire Arrieta – The Conversation (June 21, 2020)

Intestinal Flora as a Potential Strategy to Fight SARS-CoV-2 Infection – Li-Hong He – Frontiers in Microbiology (Review; published in June 2020) 

Intestinal Permeability Changes With Bacterial Translocation As Key Events modulating systemic host immune response to SARS-CoV-2: A working hypothesis – Vincenzo Cardinale – Digestive And Liver Disease (published in September 2020)

The Potential Application Of Probiotics And Prebiotics For The Prevention And treatment of COVID-19 – Amin N Olaimat – NPJ Science Of Food (published in October 2020)

The Gut Microbiome: An Under-recognised Contributor To The COVID-19 Pandemic? – Jonathan P Segal – Therapeutic Advances In Gastroenterology  (published in November 2020)

Gut Microbiota in Covid-19: An unrecognised player? – Sabrina Donati Zeppa – Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology (Review, published in November 2020)

Is Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis A Predictor Of Increased Susceptibility To Poor Outcome of COVID-19 Patients? An Update – Carolina Ferreira – Microorganisms (published in December 2020)

Fecal microbiota transplantation for COVID-19; a potential emerging treatment strategy – Seyed Aria Nejadghaderi – Medical Hypotheses (Published in December 2020)

Do An Altered Gut Microbiota And An Associated Leaky Gut Affect COVID-19 Severity? – Heenam Stanley Kim – mBio (published in January 2021)

The Microbiome Of Bat Guano: For What Is This Knowledge Important? – Ivica Dimkić – Applied Microbiology And Biotechnology (published in January 2021)

Divulgation post: A healthy microbiome builds a strong immune system that could help defeat COVID-19 -Ana Maldonado-Contreras – The Conversation (January 22, 2021)

Microbiota Modulation Of The Gut-Lung Axis In COVID-19 – Gislane Lelis Vilela de Oliveira – Frontiers In Immunology (published in February 2021)

Next-Generation Sequencing Reveals The Progression Of COVID-19 – Xiaomin Chen – Frontiers In Cellular And Infection Microbiology (published in March 2021)

Metagenomics Approaches To Investigate The Gut Microbiome Of COVID-19 Patients – Sofia Sehli – Bioinformatics And Biology Insights (published in March 2021)

The Unique Impact of COVID-19 on Human Gut Microbiome Research – Ella Burchill – Frontiers in Medicine (Published in March 2021)

Review: Modulation Of Gut Microbiota For The Prevention And Treatment Of COVID-19 – Jiezhong Chen – Journal Of Clinical Medicine (Published in June 2021)

Acknowledgments

The author wants to thank Mauricio Morales (Undergraduate student; Universidad Mayor, Chile) for his help in the generation of this list.

Update (July 4, 2021). Thanks to MaximilianKohler and Rafael for their valuable suggestions for the list update.