Oral Fungal Alterations in Patients with COVID-19 and Recovered Patients.

ABSTRACT

The oral bacteriome, gut bacteriome, and gut mycobiome are associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, the oral fungal microbiota in COVID-19 remains unclear. This article aims to characterize the oral mycobiome in COVID-19 and recovered patients. Tongue coating specimens of 71 COVID-19 patients, 36 suspected cases (SCs), 22 recovered COVID-19 patients, 36 SCs who recovered, and 132 controls from Henan are collected and analyzed using internal transcribed spacer sequencing. The richness of oral fungi is increased in COVID-19 versus controls, and beta diversity analysis reveals separate fungal communities for COVID-19 and control. The ratio of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota is higher in COVID-19, and the opportunistic pathogens, including the genera Candida, Saccharomyces, and Simplicillium, are increased in COVID-19. The classifier based on two fungal biomarkers is constructed and can distinguish COVID-19 patients from controls in the training, testing, and independent cohorts. Importantly, the classifier successfully diagnoses SCs with positive specific severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 immunoglobulin G antibodies as COVID-19 patients. The correlation between distinct fungi and bacteria in COVID-19 and control groups is depicted. These data suggest that the oral mycobiome may play a role in COVID-19.