The study builds on the finding that the widespread use of antibiotics to fight infections via pathogenic bacteria in recent decades, by killing the species most vulnerable to drugs, has left more antibiotic-resistant species. In addition, alterations in gut bacteria ratios have already been linked to more severe COVID-19.
However, according to the researchers, so far it is unclear who arrived first, as coronavirus infection disrupted the gut microbiome or an already weakened gut made the body more vulnerable to the virus. The new study favors the first explanation. The new research also found that antibiotic-resistant species can escape into the bloodstream, putting patients at a greater threat of life-threatening secondary infections.
Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the survey involved 96 men and women hospitalized with COVID-19 in 2020 in New York City and New Haven, Conn. The effects showed that most patients had diversity of microbiomes in the lower gut, with a quarter ruled through a single type of bacteria. At the same time, populations of several microbes known to come with antibiotic-resistant species have increased, likely due to the widespread use of antibiotics early in the pandemic.
He also observed that those antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the gut migrated into the bloodstream in 20% of patients. The study authors note that more studies are needed to determine why this organization has a higher risk of secondary infection while others remained protected.
“Our effects suggest that coronavirus infection directly interferes with the healthy balance of microbes in the gut, further endangering patients in the process,” says study co-director and microbiologist Ken Cadwell, Ph. D. “Now that we’ve discovered the source of this bacterial imbalance, doctors can better identify which coronavirus patients have a higher threat of secondary blood infection,” Cadwell adds.
The new study is the first to show that coronavirus infection alone, and the initial use of antibiotics to treat the disease as other experts had thought, damages the gut microbiome, says Cadwell, who is also a professor in the departments of microbiology and health at NYU Langone Health. medicine. He adds that the study also provides the first evidence that the same bacteria in the gut also enter patients’ bloodstreams, causing harmful infections.
The report is online Nov. 1 in the journal Nature Communications.
For the research, the researchers first inflamed dozens of mice with the coronavirus and analyzed the composition of the bacterial species in their stool samples. This step allowed them to determine whether the coronavirus can directly alter the microbiome regardless of hospitalization and treatment.
They then collected stool samples and blood tests from COVID-19 patients at NYU Langone Health and Yale University hospitals to assess the composition of gut microbes and the presence of a secondary infection. If an organization of bacteria made up the majority of the bacteria living in the gut, it was thought to be dominant.
“Our findings highlight how interconnected the gut microbiome and other parts of the body’s immune formula are,” says principal investigator Jonas Schluter, Ph. D. , an assistant professor in NYU Langone’s Department of Microbiology and a member of his institute. . ” An infection in one can lead to primary disruptions in the other. “
Schluter cautions that since patients obtained other types of remedies for their disease, the survey also can’t fully explain all the points that would possibly have contributed to the disruption of their microbiome and worsened their disease.
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