ArticleBMC medicine2023
Gastrointestinal symptoms of long COVID-19 related to the ectopic colonization of specific bacteria that move between the upper and lower alimentary tract and alterations in serum metabolites.
Article in BMC medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Omics Landscape of Long COVID-A Comprehensive Systematic Review to Advance Biomarker, Target and Drug Discovery.Allergy · 2025Pooled it
- The Cognitive benefits of nitrate in patients with alcohol use disorder: unraveling the oral microbiome ectopic colonization pathway.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Oral‑gut axis in systemic disease: A barrier‑metabolism‑immunity three‑dimensional regulatory model (Review).International journal of molecular medicine · 2026Review
- Long COVID and gut microbiome: insights into pathogenesis and therapeutics.Gut microbes · 2025Review
- Changes in the Gut Microbiota of Patients After SARS-CoV-2 Infection: What Do We Know?Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Microbiome and Long COVID-19: Current Evidence and Insights.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Long COVID: current research and future directions.Infectious diseases & immunity · 2025Review
- ThickFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Article
- Concentrations of uremic bacterial metabolites in patients with post-COVID-19 syndrome.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Article
- Unveiling early-life microbial colonization profile through characterizing low-biomass maternal-infant microbiomes by 2bRAD-M.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Neurological Sequelae of Post-COVID-19 Fatigue: A Narrative Review of Dipeptidyl Peptidase IV-Mediated Cerebrovascular Complications.Current issues in molecular biology · 2024Review
- Long COVID in Children, Adults, and Vulnerable Populations: A Comprehensive Overview for an Integrated Approach.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- The Aftermath of COVID-19: Exploring the Long-Term Effects on Organ Systems.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Metabolomics of cerebrospinal fluid reveals candidate diagnostic biomarkers to distinguish between spinal muscular atrophy type II and type III.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2024Article
- Alterations in microbiota of patients with COVID-19: implications for therapeutic interventions.MedComm · 2024Review
- Gut Microbiome Composition and Dynamics in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients and Patients with Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- The footprint of gut microbiota in gallbladder cancer: a mechanistic review.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2024Review
- Gut Microbiota and Mitochondria: Health and Pathophysiological Aspects of Long COVID.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Gut microbe-host interactions in post-COVID syndrome: a debilitating or restorative partnership?Gut microbesReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
24 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSince the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, many COVID-19 variants have emerged, causing several waves of pandemics and many infections. Long COVID-19, or long-term sequelae after recovery from COVID-19, has aroused worldwide concern because it reduces patient quality of life after rehabilitation. We aimed to characterize the functional differential profile of the oral and gut microbiomes and serum metabolites in patients with gastrointestinal symptoms associated with long COVID-19.
methodsWe prospectively collected oral, fecal, and serum samples from 983 antibiotic-naïve patients with mild COVID-19 and performed a 3-month follow-up postdischarge. Forty-five fecal and saliva samples, and 25 paired serum samples were collected from patients with gastrointestinal symptoms of long COVID-19 at follow-up and from healthy controls, respectively. Eight fecal and saliva samples were collected without gastrointestinal symptoms of long COVID-19 at follow-up. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing of fecal samples and 2bRAD-M sequencing of saliva samples were performed on these paired samples. Two published COVID-19 gut microbiota cohorts were analyzed for comparison. Paired serum samples were analyzed using widely targeted metabolomics.
resultsMild COVID-19 patients without gastrointestinal symptoms of long COVID-19 showed little difference in the gut and oral microbiota during hospitalization and at follow-up from healthy controls. The baseline and 3-month samples collected from patients with gastrointestinal symptoms associated with long COVID-19 showed significant differences, and ectopic colonization of the oral cavity by gut microbes including 27 common differentially abundant genera in the Proteobacteria phylum, was observed at the 3-month timepoint. Some of these bacteria, including Neisseria, Lautropia, and Agrobacterium, were highly related to differentially expressed serum metabolites with potential toxicity, such as 4-chlorophenylacetic acid, 5-sulfoxymethylfurfural, and estradiol valerate.
conclusionsOur study characterized the changes in and correlations between the oral and gut microbiomes and serum metabolites in patients with gastrointestinal symptoms associated with long COVID-19. Additionally, our findings reveal that ectopically colonized bacteria from the gut to the oral cavity could exist in long COVID-19 patients with gastrointestinal symptoms, with a strong correlation to some potential harmful metabolites in serum.
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