HONG KONG and LONDON – Two studies published this year revealed new results on the human gut midge. One linked the combination of patients’ gut microbiota with the severity of their case of COVID-19. The other study found a link between processed food and midges.
Study published online January 11 in Gut Microbiota suggested that the gut microbiome is involved in the intense size of COVID-19. Researchers from the University of China in Hong Kong in February and May last year collected blood and stool samples from 100 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection (the virus that causes COVID-19).
Gut microbiome coordination was significantly altered in patients with COVID-19 compared with 78 adults who were in a control cohort and who did not have COVID-19. Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Eubacterium rectale and bifidobacteria, which have immunomodulatory potential, are underrepresented in patients with COVID-19.
The other study was published online Jan. 11 in Nature’s cure and unexplained links between a person’s diet, the midge (microbes in their gut) and their health. Researchers examined 1,203 gut microorganisms from 1,098 people enrolled in the Personal Responses to Computational Test (PREDICT 1) study and found microbes that positively or negatively attach to a person’s risk of adverse conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.
As an example of a positive correlation, there is a rich midge Prevotella copri and Blastocystis sex was associated with maintaining a favorable blood sugar level after a meal. Subjects who ate a diet full of healthy plant-based foods were more likely to have high levels of “good” gut microbes.
As an example of a negative correlation, the researchers found biomarkers based on the microbiome of obesity, cardiovascular disease and glucose intolerance, all of which are key risk factors for COVID-19. Plant-based diets were more likely to be associated with the “bad” gut microbes.
“We were surprised to see such large, clear groups of what we informally refer to as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ microbes emerging from our study,” said Nicola Segata, PhD, senior professor and principal investigator at the Computational Metagenomics Lab at the University of Trento. in Italy and the director of the midges analysis in the study. “It’s also good to see that microbes know so little about many of these microbes that they haven’t even been named yet. This is now a major area of focus for us, as we believe they may open up new perspectives in the future on how we could use gut midges as a changing target to improve people’s metabolism and health. . ”
The study included researchers from King’s College London, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the University of Trento in Italy.