Narrative review on COVID-19 and gut microbiome disruption and immune effects
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Key Takeaway
Consider the observational link between COVID-19, gut dysbiosis, and immune changes for pandemic planning.
This is a narrative review on COVID-19 and the intestinal microbiome. The scope covers how SARS-CoV-2 infection relates to microbiome disruption, potential roles for probiotics, prebiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation, and implications for immune and neuropsychiatric outcomes.
The authors synthesize that SARS-CoV-2 infection can induce intestinal dysbiosis and modify immune signaling. They note that neuropsychiatric and metabolic complications may be affected by the microbiota-gut-brain axis. No pooled effect sizes or quantitative results are reported.
Key limitations noted include the lack of reported effect sizes, absolute numbers, p-values, or confidence intervals for the synthesized findings. The review does not report a defined study population, sample size, or follow-up period.
Practice relevance is framed as integrating microbiome research into pandemic preparedness through a One Health approach. The authors do not report safety data or causality assessments, and the evidence remains observational and preliminary.
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View Original Abstract ↓
Emerging infectious diseases, particularly zoonotic ones, remain major global health concerns. The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), highlights the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health within the One Health framework. The intestinal microbiome plays a central role in host immunity and systemic homeostasis, and its disruption has been linked to altered disease severity and recovery patterns in COVID-19. Evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2 infection induces intestinal dysbiosis, modifies immune signaling, and affects the microbiota-gut-brain axis (MGBA), contributing to neuropsychiatric and metabolic complications. This review synthesizes current findings on the intestinal microbiome’s role in COVID-19 pathophysiology and recovery, explores emerging therapeutic strategies including probiotics, prebiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation, and emphasizes the importance of integrating microbiome research into pandemic preparedness through a One Health approach.
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