Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California, Davis, CA, United States of America.
Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA, United States of America.
PeerJ. 2024 Aug 27;12:e17956. doi: 10.7717/peerj.17956. eCollection 2024.
Fecal shedding of SARS-CoV-2 occurs during infection, particularly in pediatric populations. The gut microbiota are associated with resistance to enteric pathogens. COVID-19 is associated with alterations to the gut microbiome. We hypothesized that the gut microbiome of infants born to SARS-CoV-2+ mothers differs between infants with and without fecal shedding of the virus.
We enrolled 10 infants born to SARS-CoV-2+ mothers. We used qPCR on fecal RNA to test for SARS-CoV-2 and 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the V4 region to assess the gut microbiome. Infant SARS-CoV-2 status from nasal swabs was abstracted from medical records.
Of the 10 included infants, nine were tested for SARS-CoV-2 by nasal swab with 1 testing positive. Four infants, including the nasal swab positive infant, had at least one sample with detectable levels of SARS-CoV-2 fecal shedding. Detection of both SARS-CoV-2 genes in feces was associated with increased gut alpha diversity compared to no detection by a linear mixed effects model ( < 0.001). Detection of both SARS-CoV-2 genes was associated with increased levels Erysipelotrichaceae, Lactobacillaceae, and Ruminococceae by MaAsLin2.
Fecal shedding of SARS-CoV-2 occurs in infants who test negative on nasal swabs and is associated with differences in the gut microbiome.
SARS-CoV-2 在感染期间会从粪便中排出，尤其是在儿科人群中。肠道微生物群与抵抗肠道病原体有关。COVID-19 与肠道微生物组的改变有关。我们假设，SARS-CoV-2+母亲所生婴儿的肠道微生物组在粪便中是否有病毒排出的婴儿之间存在差异。
我们招募了 10 名 SARS-CoV-2+母亲所生的婴儿。我们使用粪便 RNA 的 qPCR 检测 SARS-CoV-2 和 V4 区的 16S rRNA 基因测序来评估肠道微生物组。从病历中提取婴儿鼻拭子中的 SARS-CoV-2 状态。
在 10 名纳入的婴儿中，有 9 名通过鼻拭子进行了 SARS-CoV-2 检测，其中 1 名检测结果阳性。4 名婴儿，包括鼻拭子阳性婴儿，至少有一个样本中可检测到 SARS-CoV-2 的粪便排出。线性混合效应模型显示，粪便中同时检测到两种 SARS-CoV-2 基因与较高的肠道 α 多样性相关（<0.001）。通过 MaAsLin2 检测到两种 SARS-CoV-2 基因与肠杆菌科、乳杆菌科和真杆菌科水平的升高相关。
在鼻拭子检测为阴性的婴儿中会出现 SARS-CoV-2 的粪便排出，且与肠道微生物组的差异有关。
