The composition of gut microbiota and the metabolites they produce can predict the trajectory of respiratory function and death in patients with severe Covid-19, suggesting that the gut microbiome has important links to lung health and presents an opportunity to prevent the worst outcomes. The study is published in Nature Communications
According to Bhakti Patel, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at the University of Chicago Medicine, differences in gut microbiome are linked to increase in risk of death in Covid-19 patients with respiratory failure.
The findings could open a window for giving patients probiotic treatments containing the right strains of bacteria to produce protective metabolites.
One of the most troubling things during the pandemic was seeing patients who were relatively healthy come into the ICU and have completely different outcomes. Some died, some ultimately recovered, and many recovered but were left with lasting complications.
“This tells me there is something else going on, and this study shows that there was some interaction between their microbiome health and how they recovered from their infection,” said Patel in the paper.
Eric Pamer, the Donald F. Steiner Professor of Medicine and Director of the UChicago’s Duchossois Family Institute (DFI), said the careful timing of sample collection was critical.
The DFI’s core facilities detected several notable differences in the composition of the microbiome and metabolic products among these patients.
Patients who suffered progressive lung failure and died had more of a group of bacteria called proteobacteria than patients who recovered. These patients also had lower levels of secondary bile acids, and less of a metabolite called “desaminotyrosine”.
Conversely, the patients who improved had higher levels of secondary bile acids and more “desaminotyrosine”. It’s still too early to tell, but according to Pamer, the microbiome and the metabolites contribute to recovery from severe respiratory infection.