Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34635053›Full record

ArticleBMC microbiology2021

Beware of pharyngeal Fusobacterium nucleatum in COVID-19.

Lirong Bao, Cheng Zhang, Jinglu Lyu, Caixia Yan, Ranran Cao, Ming Pan, Yan Li

Open access · goldAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in BMC microbiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
2.6field-weighted citation impact, top 10% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Microbiome-Metabolome Crosstalk as a Driver of COVID-19 Severity.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. PeriodontopathogensPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023
    Review
  7. Could Faecalibacterium prausnitzii Amount in the Gut Microbiota Be Used to Monitor the COVID-19 Severity?The Turkish journal of gastroenterology : the official journal of Turkish Society of Gastroenterology · 2022
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Lirong BaoState Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
Cheng ZhangState Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
Jinglu LyuState Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
Caixia YanState Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
Ranran CaoSichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chengdu, 610041, China. ranran.cao@foxmail.com.
Ming PanSichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chengdu, 610041, China. 8974954@qq.com.
Yan LiState Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China. feifeiliyan@163.com.
Sichuan University · CNSichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention · CNState Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundFusobacterium nucleatum (F. n) is an important opportunistic pathogen causing oral and gastrointestinal disease. Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (F. p) is a next-generation probiotic and could serve as a biomarker of gut eubiosis/dysbiosis to some extent. Alterations in the human oral and gut microbiomes are associated with viral respiratory infection. The aim of this study was to characterise the oral and fecal bacterial biomarker (i.e., F. n and F. p) in COVID-19 patients by qPCR and investigate the pharyngeal microbiome of COVID-19 patients through metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS).

resultsPharyngeal F. n was significantly increased in COVID-19 patients, and it was higher in male than female patients. Increased abundance of pharyngeal F. n was associated with a higher risk of a positive SARS-CoV-2 test (adjusted OR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.06 ~ 1.65, P < 0.05). A classifier to distinguish COVID-19 patients from the healthy controls based on the pharyngeal F. n was constructed and achieved an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.843 (95% CI = 0.688 ~ 0.940, P < 0.001). However, the level of fecal F. n and fecal F. p remained unaltered between groups. Besides, mNGS showed that the pharyngeal swabs of COVID-19 patients were dominated by opportunistic pathogens.

conclusionsPharyngeal but not fecal F. n was significantly increased in COVID-19 patients, clinicians should pay careful attention to potential coinfection. Pharyngeal F. n may serve as a promising candidate indicator for COVID-19.

Indexed as

AdultBiomarkersCarrier StateCoinfectionCOVID-19DysbiosisFecesFemaleFusobacterium InfectionsFusobacterium nucleatumHigh-Throughput Nucleotide SequencingHumansMaleMetagenomicsMicrobiotaMiddle AgedBiomarkersCOVID-19Faecalibacterium prausnitziiFusobacterium nucleatumMetagenomic next-generation sequencingSARS-CoV-2

Identifiers

PMID34635053
PMCPMC8504566
OpenAlexW3206091565

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.