According to new research, bacteria that hide in the intestines of patients with COVID-19 may play a role in how sick they get from the disease.
Although coronavirus is primarily a respiratory disease, there is growing evidence to suggest that the gastrointestinal tract is involved, scientists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong said.
The team studied samples from 100 patients treated at two hospitals in Hong Kong to see how the so-called microbiome in the digestive system could affect recovery after the fatal bug.
“The composition of the intestinal microbiome has changed significantly in patients with COVID-19 compared to non-COVID-19 people, regardless of whether the patients received medication,” they wrote in the British Medical Journal Gut.
“Based on several patients surveyed in this study for up to 30 days after SARS-CoV-2 clearance, the gut microbiota is likely to remain significantly altered after recovery from COVID-19,” they said.
The researchers said that patients with severe disease have high levels of inflammatory plasma cytokines and inflammatory markers – and that there is “substantial involvement” of the gastrointestinal tract during infection, given the “change in the composition of the intestinal microbiota in SARS-CoV-infected subjects.” 2″
Cytokines, which are molecules that allow your cells to talk to each other, play a crucial role in healthy immune function. However, too many cytokines can lead to what is known as a “cytokine storm.”
These results suggest that the composition of the intestinal microbiota is associated with the magnitude of the immune response to COVID-19 and subsequent tissue damage and thus may play a role in regulating the severity of the disease, they wrote.
The scientists also found that because a small subgroup of patients had intestinal microbiotic dysbiosis or imbalance, even 30 days after recovery, this could be a potential explanation for why some symptoms persist in which is called long COVID.