ArticleGut microbes2026
Gut microbiome signatures during acute infection are associated with long COVID.
Article in Gut microbes, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Microbiome and Long COVID-19: Current Evidence and Insights.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Digestive Manifestations of Post-COVID-19: A Focus on Therapeutic Strategies.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
18 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLong COVID (LC) manifests in 10%-30% of non-hospitalized individuals post-SARS-CoV-2 infection, leading to significant morbidity. The predictive role of gut microbiome composition during acute infection in the development of LC is not well understood, partly because of the heterogeneous nature of the disease.
objectivesTo determine whether the gut microbiome composition in the acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection predicts subsequent LC and to investigate the role of microbiome signatures in disease subphenotypes.
designWe conducted a longitudinal cohort study involving 799 outpatient participants tested for SARS-CoV-2 due to similar symptom presentation, including 380 SARS-CoV-2 positive and 419 negative individuals. Stool samples were collected at two time points for metagenomic sequencing. Logistic regression with L1 regularization was employed to predict LC based on the microbiome and clinical metadata.
resultsThe individuals who developed LC harbored a distinct gut microbiome during acute infection compared to those who recovered fully and uninfected controls with similar symptomatology. However, the temporal changes in the gut microbiome between the acute (0-1 month) and post-acute (1-2 months) phases were similar across the three cohorts. Using machine learning, we showed that the gut microbiome carried a modest signal for subsequent LC, but model performance was insufficient for clinical prediction, likely reflecting the heterogeneous nature of LC. Finally, we identified four LC symptom clusters, with gastrointestinal and fatigue-only groups strongly linked to gut microbiome alterations.
conclusionThe gut microbiome can potentially offer solutions for understanding the heterogeneous nature of LC. Larger cohorts and phenotype-aware computational algorithms may help overcome current model performance limitations and support the development of targeted diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.