BHUBANESWAR: In a first-ever study, scientists studying the impact of SARS-CoV-2 in the human body observed displacement and imbalance of good bacteria in the throat of Covid-infected people in home isolation for over a month after viral clearance. Good bacteria is very important for normal function of the body.
The researchers’ team also observed responses to the antibiotics (Azithromycin and Doxycycline) were not uniform for all individuals. There was a reduction in the proportion of harmful bacteria for some individuals and for others, especially the ones who initially had a very low proportion of harmful bacteria, the trend often reversed.
The team included scientists from Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), an ICMR laboratory and KIIT School of Biotechnology at Bhubaneswar and National Institute of Biomedical Genomics at Kalyani in West Bengal
“We studied 30 samples, including 20 Covid-infected, and observed striking contrast in the human oropharyngeal microbiome (HOPM) of infected individuals compared to uninfected people even on Day 1. At the mid-level, we identified a set of marker bacteria, which show maximum deviation among the infected individuals compared to uninfected individuals,” a senior scientist of RMRC Dr Debdutta Bhattacharya said.
The researchers found proportion of certain bacteria, that have previously been known to be causal for lung pneumonia in studies of model organisms and human autopsies, to be elevated in some cases.
Although, earlier it was assumed that the alteration in the HOPM in Covid patients can be a clinical indicator of bacterial infection related complications, this study indicated that posterior segment of the oropharyngeal microbiome is a key reservoir for bacteria causing pneumonia and chronic lung infection on SARS-CoV-2 infection.