Bacteria in the gut may protect against viruses by signalling their presence to the immune system. — via healthing_ca
Illustration of the initial stage of COVID-19 infection: SARS-CoV-2 virus particles binding to specific receptors on the surface of cells. Armies of immune cells are then dispatched to initiate an antiviral response.
Some of these cells are specialized to locate and identify the virus, while others mount a specific immune attack. Theresults in the release of cytokines, chemokines and antibodies, which in many cases can defeat the virus, and the patient recovers. Sometimes the immune system is dangerously at high alert and overreacts. In this case, the immune cells mount an especially strong inflammatory response — one that goes beyond what is required to kill the virus. This extra-strong attack releases cytokines and chemokines on a massive scale throughout the body, resulting in a, which causes widespread inflammation and tissue damage in patients with severe COVID-19. One of the reasons for an abnormal, overreactive immune response lies in the gastrointestinal tract. Millions of interactions are constantly occurring between the immune system and trillions of non-dangerous microbes that live within the body. These interactions educate the immune system in how to function and, importantly, in how not to overreact to infectious microbes. Could this help explain why some people are more likely to develop uncontrolled inflammation upon COVID-19 infection?The gut microbiome is the community of micro-organisms living inside the gastrointestinal tract, mostly in the large bowel. The microbiome contains bacteria, fungi , viruses and protozoa, all of which contribute to maintaining a balanced ecosystem and human health. These microbes collectively perform many beneficial functions, including educating the immune system. When studying the microbiome, scientists examine the composition and function of this ecosystem. We have learned that both composition and function of the gut microbiome are important . In certain conditions, the balance of the gut microbiome composition and function is disrupted in a way that leads to disease, a phenomenon called microbiome dysbiosis.in metabolism dysregulation manifested as diabetes and obesity — the risk factors of severe COVID-19 disease.Is gut microbiome predisposing patients to severe COVID-19? The gut microbiome regulates host defences against viral infections including respiratory viruses, such as. This occurs through the activation of immune antiviral mechanisms and the prevention of excessive inflammation. Different species of the gut microbiome have pro- or anti-inflammatory properties and play different roles in regulating the immune system. In the context of COVID-19,showed that specific members of the gut microbiome were associated with severe disease and with immune markers known to be elevated in severe disease. The association of these gut bacteria with the immune markers was even higher than that of the known risk factors of COVID-19 severity: age and obesity. Further work is needed to confirm that pro-inflammatory microbial species can contribute to the immune responses that make severe COVID-19 more likely, but based on what we know about the microbiome, this is certainly a possibility. This also could mean that beneficial gut microbiome species, the type that promote low inflammation, have the potential to prevent or remediate the immune alterations that lead to severe COVID-19.The research community is working very hard to develop and test
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