Alterations in the oral microbiome detected during long-term follow-up of COVID-19 recovered patients

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

BACKGROUND: The oral biome was significantly altered in COVID-19 patients, but there is still a gap in long-term follow-up studies of the oral microbiota of recovering patients. METHODS: We recruited 62 patients with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis and collected tongue moss samples at three time points: 1 month (RP1), 3 months (RP3) and 5 months (RP5) of rehabilitation. We then sequenced the tongue samples for 16S rRNA amplicons. RESULTS: The results showed that there was no significant difference in the oral microbial composition of patients who had been rehabilitated for 3 months compared to those who had been rehabilitated for 1 month, whereas patients who had been rehabilitated for 5 months showed a significant increase in the diversity of the oral microbiome compared to those who had been rehabilitated for 1 month. In addition, we characterized the dynamics of the oral microbiome of COVID-19 patients during their rehabilitation. CONCLUSION: As patients recover, the diversity of their oral microbiome gradually returns to normal, providing microbiological evidence for the clinical diagnosis and treatment strategies of COVID-19.