It’s probably no surprise to hear that our bodies are teeming with microorganisms. It’s not the type that’ll make you ill, I promise. We couldn’t survive and be healthy without it. The small intestine is home to a large population of these “good” bacteria. The bacteria in our intestines aid us in many ways, but perhaps most importantly, they keep us safe and allow us to digest food and utilize energy.
As the first line of defense, the bacteria in the human digestive tract play a significant role in shaping the maturation of the immune system. Our immune systems learn to distinguish between good and dangerous microbes because of the signals they get from the bacteria in our bodies. Toxin elimination from the body is another crucial function of the bacteria in our digestive tract.
“Our research shows that a coronavirus infection directly upsets the healthy balance of microbes in the gut, putting patients in more danger,” says Ken Cadwell, Ph.D.
According to new research, COVID-19 infections can reduce the number of bacterial species in a person’s gut, making room for dangerous microbes to grow.
When a person gets sick with SARS-CoV-2 (the COVID-19 pandemic virus) the number of bacterial species in their gut can decrease. With less variety in the microbiome, dangerous microbes can grow and spread. This report came out in the journal Nature Communications on November 1.
This new research is the first to demonstrate that coronavirus infection, and not the first course of antibiotics used to treat the sickness, is responsible for the disruption of the gut microbiota.
According to NYU Langone Health professor of microbiology and medicine David Cadwell, this is the first time it has been shown. He adds that this research is the first to show that harmful bacteria found in the digestive tract may enter the circulation and spread throughout the body.
“Our results suggest that coronavirus infection directly upsets the healthy balance of microbes in the gut, putting patients at even more risk,” says microbiologist and co-author of the study Cadwell, Ph.D. “Now that we know what caused this bacterial imbalance, doctors can better tell which coronavirus patients are most likely to get another bloodstream infection.”
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The study’s premise is that antibiotics have been widely utilized to treat diseases brought on by pathogenic bacteria throughout the previous several decades.
This has resulted in the extinction of drug-susceptible species while simultaneously increasing the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant ones. The severity of COVID-19 has also been associated with changes in the ratio of gut microorganisms.
The research was headed by scientists from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. There were 96 men and women studied, all of whom were hospitalized in New York City and New Haven, Connecticut, due to complications with COVID-19 in the year 2020.
Patients were found to have gut microbiomes that were low in variety overall, with one species of bacterium dominating in 25% of cases. Simultaneously, the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms increased—a possible explanation: widespread usage of antibiotics at the outbreak’s outset.
Twenty percent of patients had these antibiotic-resistant bacteria in their blood, and twenty percent had them in their intestines. The study’s authors note that additional investigation is required to determine why this subset of the population was at increased risk for a second infection while the general population was spared.
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Disease in one may have far-reaching effects on the other. Dr. Jonas Schluter, an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology at NYU Langone and a member of the Institute for Systems Genetics, and the study’s primary author, says.
“Our findings illustrate how tightly the gut microbiota and various aspects of the immune system are related.” Schluter cautions that the study’s limitations lie in its inability to rule out all potential causes of the microbiome disruption that contributed to the patients’ deterioration in health, given the wide variety of therapies they received.
Is the gut microbiome altered by coronavirus infection, or does an impaired microbiome leave the body more vulnerable to infection?
It seems that the latest research backs the first interpretation. Scientists claim they now know the order of events for the first time. The current research confirms previous findings that antibiotic-resistant organisms may enter the circulation, putting patients at risk for potentially fatal secondary infections.
“Our results show how closely connected the gut microbiome and different parts of the immune system are. When one gets sick, it can cause big problems in the other,” Schluter notes.
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