Cross-sectional study reveals links between gut microbiota dysbiosis and brain alterations in post-COVID-19 patients, suggesting microbiome shifts contribute to neurological symptoms.
Key Points
To evaluate whether gut microbiota composition is altered in post-COVID-19 condition and to explore its associations with neurological symptoms and structural or functional brain abnormalities.
Analyzed gut microbiota composition using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing in 42 post-COVID-19 patients (29 females, mean age 46.7 years) and 30 healthy controls (22 females, mean age 53.9 years) at 9 months post-infection.
Identified differentially abundant taxa via linear discriminant analysis and correlated them with symptom scores, neuropsychological tests, inflammatory and neuronal-injury markers, and MRI brain changes.
Post-COVID-19 patients exhibited significant gut dysbiosis at 9 months post-infection, marked by a depletion of beneficial butyrate-producing bacteria such as Blautia faecis and Anaerobutyricum hallii.
Abundances of Bilophila wadsworthia, Odoribacter splanchnicus, Coprococcus eutactus, and Streptococcus thermophilus correlated with fatigue, poorer sleep quality, and altered structure and function across the brainstem, thalamus, hippocampus, and basal ganglia.