ABSTRACT
Introduction: Gut dysbiosis is associated with immune dysfunction and severity in COVID- 191-2. This study aimed to determine targeting dysbiosis as a therapy and its effect on antibody formation, gut dysbiosis and immune profile in patients with COVID-19. Material & Methods: In an open-label study, 25 consecutive hospitalized patients with COVID- 19 received a novel microbiome immunity formula (SIM01) for 28 days;30 patients who did not receive the intervention acted as controls. We collected fecal and blood samples at baseline and week 5 and followed subjects from admission up to five weeks. We performed multi-omics analysis using data from peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) transcriptome, fecal metagenomic sequencing and fecal metabolomic profiling (Figure 1A). Results: Significantly more COVID-19 patients on SIM01 developed anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG than the control group at 2 weeks (Figure 1B). Patients on SIM01 (but not controls) showed a significant reduction of plasma levels of interleukin (IL)-6, macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF), tumour necrosis factor (TNF-a), IL-1RA (Figure 1C) and downregulated COVID-19 related signalling pathway in PBMC at Week 5. Fecal samples of subjects on SIM01 were enriched in commensal bacteria and reduced in opportunistic pathogens at week 4 and 5. Elevated plasma acetic acid in SIM01 group showed a negative correlation with SARS-CoV-2 viral load in nasopharyngeal samples (Figure 2A). Increased relative abundance of Bifidobacteria adolescentis and Coprococcus comes in fecal samples in SIM01 group positively correlated with plasma acetic acid levels (Figure 2B). Conclusion: We showed for the first time a novel microbiome formula SIM01 was effective in hastening antibody formation against SARS-CoV-2, reduced pro-inflammatory immune markers and restored gut dysbiosis in hospitalised COVID-19 patients. References: 1. Zuo T, Zhang F, Lui GCY, et al. Alterations in gut microbiota of patients with COVID-19 during time of hospitalization. Gastroenterology 2020;159:944-955 e8. 2. Yeoh YK, Zuo T, Lui GC, et al. Gut microbiota composition reflects disease severity and dysfunctional immune responses in patients with COVID- 19. Gut 2021;70:698-706. (Figure Presented) (Figure Presented)