Background The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) has a tropism for the gastrointestinal tract and several studies have shown an alteration of the gut microbiota in hospitalized infected patients. However, long-term data on microbiota changes after recovery are lacking. Methods We enrolled 30 patients hospitalized for SARS‑CoV‑2-related pneumonia. Their gut microbiota was analyzed within 48 h from the admission and compared with (1) that of other patients admitted for suspected bacterial pneumonia (control group) (2) that obtained from the same subject 6 months after nasopharyngeal swab negativization. Results Gut microbiota alpha-diversity increased 6 months after the resolution of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Bacteroidetes relative abundance was higher (≈ 36.8%) in patients with SARS-CoV-2, and declined to 18.7% when SARS-CoV-2 infection resolved (p = 0.004). Conversely, Firmicutes were prevalent (≈ 75%) in controls and in samples collected after SARS-CoV-2 infection resolution (p = 0.001). Ruminococcaceae, Lachnospiraceae and Blautia increased after SARS-CoV-2 infection resolution, rebalancing the gut microbiota composition. Conclusion SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with changes in the gut microbiome, which tend to be reversed in long-term period. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13099-021-00459-9.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Pneumonia, gut microbiota, 【초록키워드】 coronavirus, Hospitalized, SARS-COV-2 infection, Nasopharyngeal swab, microbiota, Patient, Microbiome, Control, change, Admission, gastrointestinal tract, Bacterial, Gut, acute respiratory syndrome, control group, supplementary material, infected patients, subject, gut microbiota composition, prevalent, Result, enrolled, shown, analyzed, collected, changes in, resolved, reversed, declined, Bacteroidete, Firmicute, patients hospitalized, patients with SARS-CoV-2, 【제목키워드】 Infection, feature, Improved,