A research group at Nagoya University has revealed that the genus Collinsella, an intestinal bacterium, may prevent the infection and aggravation of COVID-19.

 COVID-19 infections caused by the new coronavirus are rampant around the world, but their mortality rates tend to be particularly high in Europe and the United States.On the contrary, the mortality rate is lower in Asia than in Europe and the United States, and various factors such as gene sequence, past exposure history to another virus, and lifestyle-related differences have been cited as candidates for factor X that determines this difference. rice field.This time, we considered that there may be a difference in the "intestinal flora", and analyzed the relationship with COVID-10 mortality using intestinal bacterial data of 953 healthy subjects in 19 countries including Japan. did.

 First, we created a machine learning model that predicts COVID-19 mortality in each country using the intestinal flora, and found that the lower the proportion of the intestinal bacterium Collinsella, the higher the mortality rate.

 Next, when unsupervised cluster analysis was performed, the data of 953 people were classified into 5 intestinal flora types (enterotypes).In Asia, the proportion of enterotype 1 was high, and in Europe and the United States, the proportion of enterotypes 4 and 5 was high, and the COVID-19 mortality rate increased from enterotype 1 to 5.On the other hand, the genus Collinsella decreased from enterotype 1 to 5.

 Ursodeoxycholic acid produced by the genus Collinsella in the intestine prevents the binding of the new coronavirus to infectious receptors, suppresses pro-inflammatory cytokines, has antioxidant and anti-apoptotic effects, and has acute respiratory distress. Syndrome (ARDS) has been shown to increase alveolar fluid clearance.From the above, Collinsella is involved in the prevention of COVID-19 infection and aggravation by the effect that ursodeoxycholic acid prevents the infection of the new coronavirus and suppresses the aggravation of COVID-19 (improves ARDS). It was suggested that there is a possibility of doing so.

 It is expected that ursodeoxycholic acid can be used as a preventive drug for COVID-19 infection and aggravation if further elucidation progresses in the future.

Paper information:[PLOS ONE] Intestinal Collinsella may mitigate infection and exacerbation of COVID-19 by producing ursodeoxycholate

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