Gastrointestinal Microenvironment and the Gut-Lung Axis in the Immune Responses of Severe COVID-19

Yun Yang; Weishan Huang; Yubo Fan; Guo-Qiang Chen

doi:10.3389/fmolb.2021.647508

Gastrointestinal Microenvironment and the Gut-Lung Axis in the Immune Responses of Severe COVID-19

Front Mol Biosci. 2021 Apr 12:8:647508. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.647508. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Yun Yang¹, Weishan Huang^{2

3}, Yubo Fan¹, Guo-Qiang Chen^{4

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Advanced Innovation Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Key Laboratory for Biomechanics and Mechanobiology of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
² Department of Pathobiological Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, United States.
³ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States.
⁴ Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
⁵ MOE Key Lab of Industrial Biocatalysis, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
⁶ Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is an unprecedented threat to the human health. A close association of the digestive tract is implied by the high frequency of gastrointestinal syndromes among COVID-19 patients. A better understanding of the role of intestinal microenvironment in COVID-19 immunopathology will be helpful to improve the control of COVID-19 associated morbidity and mortality. This review summarizes the immune responses associated with the severity of COVID-19, the current evidence of SARS-CoV-2 intestinal tropism, and the potential involvement of gut microenvironment in COVID-19 severity. Additionally, we discuss the therapeutic potential of probiotics as an alternative medicine to prevent or alleviate severe COVID-19 outcome.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; enteric infection; gut-lung axis; intestinal dysbiosis; severe COVID-19.

Publication types

Review