Identification of Lung and Blood Microbiota Implicated in COVID-19 Prognosis.

Kypros Dereschuk,Mahadevan Rajasekaran,Jaideep Chakladar,Lauren Apostol,Ishan Ranjan,Weg M Ongkeko,Eric Y Chang,Wei Tse Li

doi:10.3390/cells10061452

Kypros Dereschuk, Mahadevan Rajasekaran + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/cells10061452

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Abstract

The implications of the microbiome on Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prognosis has not been thoroughly studied. In this study we aimed to characterize the lung and blood microbiome and their implication on COVID-19 prognosis through analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples, lung biopsy samples, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) samples. In all three tissue types, we found panels of microbes differentially abundant between COVID-19 and normal samples correlated to immune dysregulation and upregulation of inflammatory pathways, including key cytokine pathways such as interleukin (IL)-2, 3, 5-10 and 23 signaling pathways and downregulation of anti-inflammatory pathways including IL-4 signaling. In the PBMC samples, six microbes were correlated with worse COVID-19 severity, and one microbe was correlated with improved COVID-19 severity. Collectively, our findings contribute to the understanding of the human microbiome and suggest interplay between our identified microbes and key inflammatory pathways which may be leveraged in the development of immune therapies for treating COVID-19 patients.

Highlights

As of 19 March 2021, 122,044,376 people have been infected and 2,695,014 have died from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [1]
We found activated mast cells, M1 macrophages, eosinophils, neutrophils abundances were significantly increased in COVID-19 patients and T regulatory cells (Tregs) M0 macrophages and activated dendritic cells abundance was significantly decreased in COVID-19 patients (Figure 3D)
We identified 91 bacteria and 14 fungus differentially abundant in lung biopsy, 13 bacteria and 9 fungus differentially abundant in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC), and 12 bacteria and 57 fungus differentially abundant in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF)

Summary

Introduction

As of 19 March 2021, 122,044,376 people have been infected and 2,695,014 have died from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [1]. Symptoms and severity of COVID-19 vary drastically. The most common symptoms are fever, cough, fatigue, headache, myalgias, and diarrhea. The severity of COVID-19 symptoms can range from very mild to severe [2,3]. Around one in six infected individuals present with no symptoms at all [4].

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