ArticlePharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland)2023
Metformin Therapy Changes Gut Microbiota Alpha-Diversity in COVID-19 Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: The Role of SARS-CoV-2 Variants and Antibiotic Treatment.
Article in Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of vitamin D supplementation on COVID-19 outcomes: an umbrella review of systematic reviews.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Exploring the interplay between posttraumatic stress disorder, gut microbiota, and inflammatory biomarkers: a comprehensive meta-analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Pooled it
- Metabolic profiling of healthy vs. syndrome-associated obesity and effects of six-month metformin therapy.Acta diabetologica · 2026 · on this mapTrial
- Gut microbiota dysbiosis-induced chronic inflammation as a driver of atherosclerosis: cellular crosstalk and host-microbe interactions.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- A Review of Global Patterns in Gut Microbiota Composition, Health and Disease: Locating South Africa in the Conversation.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Extracellular DNA, hyaluronic acid, HIF pathways, and LncRNAs as predictive biomarkers of severe COVID-19.Virology journal · 2025Review
- Molecular and Biochemical Mechanisms of Cardiomyopathy Development Following Prenatal Hypoxia-Focus on the NO System.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- The Application of S-Substituted Pteridine for CClBiomedicines · 2025Article
- Genetic Predictors of Paxlovid Treatment Response: The Role of IFNAR2, OAS1, OAS3, and ACE2 in COVID-19 Clinical Course.Journal of personalized medicine · 2025Article
- MicrobeRX: a tool for enzymatic-reaction-based metabolite prediction in the gut microbiome.Microbiome · 2025Article
- Metformin as a disease-modifying therapy in osteoarthritis: bridging metabolism and joint health.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Recent advances in the management of knee osteoarthritis: a narrative review.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Review
- Advanced Membrane Simulations in Probiotics and Gut Microbiome Interaction Research: The Current Trends and Insights.Current pharmaceutical design · 2025Review
- Unlocking the gut-liver axis: microbial contributions to the pathogenesis of metabolic-associated fatty liver disease.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Review
- Future horizons in diabetes treatment: hypoglycemic activity of [1,2,4]triazino[2,3-Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Article
- Impact of chronic social stress on molecular markers of skin regeneration during experimental excisional wounding.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Review
- Exploring the Efficacy of Alpha-Lipoic Acid in Comorbid Osteoarthritis and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.Nutrients · 2024Article
- Diabetes and Osteoarthritis: Exploring the Interactions and Therapeutic Implications of Insulin, Metformin, and GLP-1-Based Interventions.Biomedicines · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The gut microbiota play a crucial role in maintaining host health and have a significant impact on human health and disease. In this study, we investigated the alpha diversity of gut microbiota in COVID-19 patients and analyzed the impact of COVID-19 variants, antibiotic treatment, type 2 diabetes (T2D), and metformin therapy on gut microbiota composition and diversity. We used a culture-based method to analyze the gut microbiota and calculated alpha-diversity using the Shannon H' and Simpson 1/D indices. We collected clinical data, such as the length of hospital stay (LoS), C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio. We found that patients with T2D had significantly lower alpha-diversity than those without T2D. Antibiotic use was associated with a reduction in alpha-diversity, while metformin therapy was associated with an increase. We did not find significant differences in alpha-diversity between the Delta and Omicron groups. The length of hospital stay, CRP levels, and NLR showed weak to moderate correlations with alpha diversity. Our findings suggest that maintaining a diverse gut microbiota may benefit COVID-19 patients with T2D. Interventions to preserve or restore gut microbiota diversity, such as avoiding unnecessary antibiotic use, promoting metformin therapy, and incorporating probiotics, may improve patient outcomes.
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Registered trials
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.