Analysis of the intestinal microbiota in COVID-19 patients and its correlation with the inflammatory factor IL-18.
Analysis of the intestinal microbiota in COVID-19 patients and its correlation with the inflammatory factor IL-18.
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COVID-19患者肠道菌群分析及其与炎症因子IL-18的相关性
DOI：
10.1016/j.medmic.2020.100023
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发表时间：
2020-09
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Zhu S
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Tao W;Zhang G;Wang X;Guo M;Zeng W;Xu Z;Cao D;Pan A;Wang Y;Zhang K;Ma X;Chen Z;Jin T;Liu L;Weng J;Zhu S
由严重急性呼吸道综合征冠状病毒2型（SARS-CoV-2）引起的COVID-19疾病正在全球流行，主要感染肺上皮细胞，并主要通过呼吸道飞沫传播。然而，最近的研究表明，SARS-CoV-2的潜在肠道感染，暗示SARS-CoV-2的肠道感染可能与肠道微生物群的生态失调以及COVID-19症状的严重程度相关。在这里，我们调查了COVID-19患者肠道微生物群的变化，并分析了改变的微生物与肠道炎症细胞因子IL-18水平之间的相关性，据报道，IL-18在COVID-19患者的血清中升高。与健康对照组或季节性流感患者相比，肠道微生物群的多样性显着降低，COVID-19患者的机会致病菌增加。此外，COVID-19患者粪便样本中的IL-18水平高于健康对照或季节性流感患者。此外，从SARS-CoV-2 RNA检测阳性的COVID-19患者获得的粪便上清液中的IL-18水平甚至高于粪便样本中检测阴性的患者。这些结果表明，肠道微生物群组成的变化可能有助于SARS-CoV-2诱导的肠道炎性细胞因子的产生，并可能导致细胞因子风暴的发生。
The ongoing global pandemic of COVID-19 disease, which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), mainly infect lung epithelial cells, and spread mainly through respiratory droplets. However, recent studies showed potential intestinal infection of SARS-CoV-2, implicated the possibility that the intestinal infection of SARS-CoV-2 may correlate with the dysbiosis of gut microbiota, as well as the severity of COVID-19 symptoms. Here, we investigated the alteration of the gut microbiota in COVID-19 patients, as well as analyzed the correlation between the altered microbes and the levels of intestinal inflammatory cytokine IL-18, which was reported to be elevated in the serum of in COVID-19 patients. Comparing with healthy controls or seasonal flu patients, the gut microbiota showed significantly reduced diversity, with increased opportunistic pathogens in COVID-19 patients. Also, IL-18 level was higher in the fecal samples of COVID-19 patients than in those of either healthy controls or seasonal flu patients. Moreover, the IL-18 levels were even higher in the fecal supernatants obtained from COVID-19 patients that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA than those that tested negative in fecal samples. These results indicate that changes in gut microbiota composition might contribute to SARS-CoV-2-induced production of inflammatory cytokines in the intestine and potentially also to the onset of a cytokine storm.