PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - V. Babenko
AU  - R. Bakhtyev
AU  - V. Baklaushev
AU  - L. Balykova
AU  - P. Bashkirov
AU  - J. Bespyatykh
AU  - A. Blagonravova
AU  - D. Boldyreva
AU  - D. Fedorov
AU  - I. Gafurov
AU  - R. Gaifullina
AU  - Y. Galeeva
AU  - E. Galova
AU  - A. Gospodaryk
AU  - E. Ilina
AU  - K. Ivanov
AU  - D. Kharlampieva
AU  - P. Khromova
AU  - K. Klimina
AU  - K. Kolontarev
AU  - N. Kolyshkina
AU  - A. Koritsky
AU  - V. Kuropatkin
AU  - V. Lazarev
AU  - A. Manolov
AU  - V. Manuvera
AU  - D. Matyushkina
AU  - M. Morozov
AU  - E. Moskaleva
AU  - V. Musarova
AU  - O. Ogarkov
AU  - E. Orlova
AU  - A. Pavlenko
AU  - A. Petrova
AU  - N. Pozhenko
AU  - D. Pushkar
AU  - A. Rumyantsev
AU  - S. Rumyantsev
AU  - V. Rumyantsev
AU  - L. Rychkova
AU  - A. Samoilov
AU  - I. Shirokova
AU  - V. Sinkov
AU  - S. Solovieva
AU  - P. Tikhonova
AU  - G. Trifonova
AU  - A. Troitsky
AU  - A. Tulichev
AU  - Y. Udalov
AU  - A. Varizhuk
AU  - A. Vasiliev
AU  - V. Veselovsky
AU  - A. Volnukhin
AU  - G. Yusubalieva
AU  - V. Govorun
TI  - Analysis of the upper respiratory tract microbiota in mild and severe COVID-19 patients
AID  - 10.1101/2021.09.20.461025
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.09.20.461025
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/09/20/2021.09.20.461025.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/09/20/2021.09.20.461025.full
AB  - The microbiota of the respiratory tract remains a relatively poorly studied subject. At the same time, like the intestinal microbiota, it is involved in modulating the immune response to infectious agents in the host organism. A causal relationship between the composition of the respiratory microbiota and the likelihood of development and the severity of COVID-19 may be hypothesized. We analyze biomaterial from nasopharyngeal smears from 336 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19, selected during the first and second waves of the epidemic in Russia. Sequences from a similar study conducted in Spain were also included in the analysis. We investigated associations between disease severity and microbiota at the level of microbial community (community types) and individual microbes (differentially represented species). To search for associations, we performed multivariate analysis, taking into account comorbidities, type of community and lineage of the virus. We found that two out of six community types are associated with a more severe course of the disease, and one of the community types is characterized by high stability (very similar microbiota profiles in different patients) and low level of lung damage. Differential abundance analysis with respect to comorbidities and community type suggested association of Rothia and Streptococcus genera representatives with more severe lung damage, and Leptotrichia, unclassified Lachnospiraceae and Prevotella with milder forms of the disease.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.