{"doi":"10.3390/ijms23169141","title":"Plasma Microbiome in COVID-19 Subjects: An Indicator of Gut Barrier Defects and Dysbiosis","abstract":"The gut is a well-established route of infection and target for viral damage by SARS-CoV-2. This is supported by the clinical observation that about half of COVID-19 patients exhibit gastrointestinal (GI) complications. We aimed to investigate whether the analysis of plasma could provide insight into gut barrier dysfunction in patients with COVID-19 infection. Plasma samples of COVID-19 patients (n = 146) and healthy individuals (n = 47) were collected during hospitalization and routine visits. Plasma microbiome was analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing and gut permeability markers including fatty acid binding protein 2 (FABP2), peptidoglycan (PGN), and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in both patient cohorts. Plasma samples of both cohorts contained predominately Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroides, and Actinobacteria. COVID-19 subjects exhibit significant dysbiosis (p = 0.001) of the plasma microbiome with increased abundance of Actinobacteria spp. (p = 0.0332), decreased abundance of Bacteroides spp. (p = 0.0003), and an increased Firmicutes:Bacteroidetes ratio (p = 0.0003) compared to healthy subjects. The concentration of the plasma gut permeability marker FABP2 (p = 0.0013) and the gut microbial antigens PGN (p < 0.0001) and LPS (p = 0.0049) were significantly elevated in COVID-19 patients compared to healthy subjects. These findings support the notion that the intestine may represent a source for bacteremia and contribute to worsening COVID-19 outcomes. Therapies targeting the gut and prevention of gut barrier defects may represent a strategy to improve outcomes in COVID-19 patients.","journal":"International Journal of Molecular Sciences","year":2022,"id":236652,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":67,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9383,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":755817,"name":"Michael J. Patton","orcid":"0000-0001-5056-6043","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":277437,"name":"Jason L. Floyd","orcid":"0000-0002-7452-1680","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":339183,"name":"Seth D. Fortmann","orcid":"0000-0002-9554-8751","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":339190,"name":"Mariana Dupont","orcid":"0000-0001-7986-3383","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":858324,"name":"Angela Harbour","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":367004,"name":"Justin Wright","orcid":"0000-0002-1132-8349","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":367005,"name":"Regina Lamendella","orcid":"0000-0002-0952-1326","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":131831,"name":"Bruce R. Stevens","orcid":"0000-0003-2109-8724","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":5582,"name":"Gavin Y. Oudit","orcid":"0000-0002-9154-9028","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":277438,"name":"Maria B. Grant","orcid":"0000-0002-6470-0255","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":295845,"name":"Ram Prasad","orcid":"0000-0002-1931-5040","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":125,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:22:03.686498Z","pmid":"36012406","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}