According to new research, the bacteria lurking in the gut of COVID-19 patients may play a role in how sick they get from the disease.
While the coronavirus is primarily a respiratory disease, there is growing evidence to suggest that the gastrointestinal tract is involved, according to scientists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The team studied samples from 100 patients treated in two Hong Kong hospitals to see how the so-called microbiome in the digestive system could affect recovery from the deadly bug.
“The composition of the gut microbiome was significantly changed in patients with COVID-19 compared to non-COVID-19 individuals, regardless of whether or not the patients were on medication,” they wrote in the British Medical Journal publication Gut.
“Based on several patients surveyed in this study up to 30 days after SARS-CoV-2 clearing, it is likely that gut flora will continue to be significantly altered after recovery from COVID-19,” they said.
The researchers said patients with severe disease exhibit high blood plasma levels of inflammatory cytokines and inflammatory markers – and that there is “substantial involvement” of the gastrointestinal tract during infection, given the “altered gut microbiota composition in SARS-CoV-2 infected subjects. . “
Cytokines, molecules that allow your cells to talk to each other, play a critical role for healthy immune function. However, too many cytokines can result in what is known as a ‘cytokine rush’.
“These results suggest that gut flora composition is associated with the magnitude of the immune response to COVID-19 and subsequent tissue damage and thus may play a role in regulating disease severity,” they wrote.
The scientists also found that because a small subset of patients showed gut microbiota dysbiosis or imbalance even 30 days after recovery, this could be a possible explanation for why some symptoms persist in what is known as long COVID.