Abstract
With the alarming rise of infected cases and deaths, COVID-19 is a pandemic, affecting 220 countries worldwide. Until now, no specific treatment is available against SARS-CoV-2. The causal virus SARS-CoV-2 primarily infects lung cells, leading to respiratory illness ranging in severity from the common cold to deadly pneumonia. This, with comorbidities, worsens the clinical outcome, particularly for immunosuppressed individuals with COVID-19. Interestingly, the commensal gut microbiota has been shown to improve lung infections by modulating the immune system. Therefore, fine-tuning of the gut microbiome with probiotics could be an alternative strategy for boosting immunity and treating COVID-19. Here, we present a systematic biological network and meta-analysis to provide a rationale for the implementation of probiotics in preventing and/or treating COVID-19. We have identified 90 training genes from the literature analysis (according to PRISMA guidelines) and generated an association network concerning the candidate genes linked with COVID-19 and probiotic treatment. The functional modules and pathway enrichment analysis of the association network clearly show that the application of probiotics could have therapeutic effects on ACE2-mediated virus entry, activation of the systemic immune response, nlrp3-mediated immunomodulatory pathways, immune cell migration resulting in lung tissue damage and cardiovascular difficulties, and altered glucose/lipid metabolic pathways in the disease prognosis. We also demonstrate the potential mechanistic domains as molecular targets for probiotic applications to combat the viral infection. Our study, therefore, offers probiotics-mediated novel preventive and therapeutic strategies for COVID-19 warfare.
Keywords: Biological network analysis; COVID-19; Gut-lung axis; Meta-analysis; Probiotics; SARS-CoV-2.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Meta-analysis, Probiotics, gut-lung axis, Biological network analysis, SARS-CoV-2., 【초록키워드】 Treatment, Meta-analysis, SARS-CoV-2, viral infection, pandemic, Prognosis, Pneumonia, severity, Comorbidities, Probiotics, gut microbiome, gut-lung axis, Respiratory illness, Lung infection, immune system, virus, Clinical outcome, Migration, implementation, immunomodulatory, virus entry, Microbiome, biological network, gut microbiota, common cold, therapeutic strategy, Glucose, association, NLRP3, Analysis, Immune cell, Pathways, Pathway enrichment analysis, candidate gene, Immunosuppressed, deaths, Gut, systemic immune response, Activation, metabolic pathway, domain, rationale, therapeutic effects, lung tissue, therapeutic effect, infected cases, molecular target, treating COVID-19, specific treatment, lung cells, offer, infect, country, IMPROVE, shown, resulting, the disease, functional, concerning, affecting, infected case, boosting immunity, individuals with COVID-19, modulating, with COVID-19, 【제목키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, Strategy, network,