Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a global emergency that calls for a better understanding of our immune defenses against SARS-CoV-2. It has been shown that some gut bacteria have immunomodulatory properties, and emerging evidence has indicated the possible association of the irregular gut microbiome composition in COVID-19. However, the heterogeneity amongst the original research studies’ results requires thorough statistical analysis to reach a unified conclusion. This study aims to examine the relationship between human gut microbiome composition and COVID-19. Three databases including PubMed,Web of Science, and Embase were searched to find articles published prior to February 2022 that reported measures of gut bacterial composition in COVID-19 patients. The abstracts of these articles were screened to determine if they fulfilled the selection criteria and eventually, 11 publications containing appropriate information were selected and analyzed. Microbiome composition data were evaluated using alpha diversity, beta diversity, and relative abundance indexes to determine if the composition of gut microbiome in COVID-19 patients is different from the healthy control group. The results of this study suggest that COVID-19 patients are associated with abnormal microbiome composition, as reflected by a statistically significant decrease in microbial diversity as compared to healthy individuals. In addition, COVID-19 patients exhibited notably decreased anti-inflammatory bacteria, but increased opportunistic bacteria. These findings indicate that gut microbiome can be used as a biomarker in monitoring COVID-19 disease progress, and restoring the diversity and number of antiinflammatory bacteria may serve as a promising novel adjuvant therapy.
Cite
MLA
Lu, Cindy. “Aberrant Human Gut Microbiome Composition in COVID-19 Disease: A Potential Target for Novel Adjuvant Therapy.” Journal of Secondary and Undergraduate Research, vol. 1, no. 1, 2023
APA
Lu, C. (2023). Aberrant Human Gut Microbiome Composition in COVID-19 Disease: A Potential Target for Novel Adjuvant Therapy. Journal of Secondary and Undergraduate Research, 1(1)
Chicago
Lu, Cindy. “Aberrant Human Gut Microbiome Composition in COVID-19 Disease: A Potential Target for Novel Adjuvant Therapy.” Journal of Secondary and Undergraduate Research 1, no. 1 (2023).