Valentino MS, Esposito C, Colosimo S, Caprio AM, Puzone S, Guarino S, Marzuillo P, Miraglia del Giudice E, Di Sessa A. Gut microbiota and COVID-19: An intriguing pediatric perspective. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(23): 8076-8087 [PMID: 36159525 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i23.8076]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Anna Di Sessa, MD, PhD, Research Fellow, Department of Woman, Child, and General and Specialized Surgery, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via de Crecchio 2, Naples 80138, Italy. anna.disessa@libero.it
Research Domain of This Article
Pediatrics
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Aug 16, 2022; 10(23): 8076-8087 Published online Aug 16, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i23.8076
Gut microbiota and COVID-19: An intriguing pediatric perspective
Maria Sole Valentino, Claudia Esposito, Simone Colosimo, Angela Maria Caprio, Simona Puzone, Stefano Guarino, Pierluigi Marzuillo, Emanuele Miraglia del Giudice, Anna Di Sessa
Maria Sole Valentino, Claudia Esposito, Simone Colosimo, Angela Maria Caprio, Simona Puzone, Stefano Guarino, Pierluigi Marzuillo, Emanuele Miraglia del Giudice, Anna Di Sessa, Department of Woman, Child, and General and Specialized Surgery, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples 80138, Italy
Author contributions: Valentino MS wrote the first draft of the manuscript; Miraglia del Giudice E, Di Sessa A and Marzuillo P conceived the manuscript; Di Sessa A and Miraglia del Giudice E supervised the manuscript drafting; Esposito C, Colosimo S, Guarino S, Caprio AM Puzone S reviewed the literature data; Valentino MS and Esposito C prepared the tables; All authors contributed important intellectual content during manuscript drafting or revision.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Anna Di Sessa, MD, PhD, Research Fellow, Department of Woman, Child, and General and Specialized Surgery, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via de Crecchio 2, Naples 80138, Italy. anna.disessa@libero.it
Received: March 20, 2022 Peer-review started: March 20, 2022 First decision: May 29, 2022 Revised: June 14, 2022 Accepted: July 11, 2022 Article in press: July 11, 202 Published online: August 16, 2022
Abstract
Gastrointestinal (GI) involvement has been reported in approximately 50% of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is due to the pathogenic role of inflammation and the intestinal function of the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 and its receptor. Accumulating adult data has pointed out that gut dysbiosis might occur in these patients with a potential impact on the severity of the disease, however the role of gut microbiota in susceptibility and severity of COVID-19 disease in children is still poorly known. During the last decades, the crosstalk between gut and lung has been largely recognized resulting in the concept of “gut-lung axis” as a central player in modulating the development of several diseases. Both organs are involved in the common mucosal immune system (including bronchus-associated and gut-associated lymphoid tissues) and their homeostasis is crucial for human health. In this framework, it has been found that the role of GI dysbiosis is affecting the homeostasis of the gut-liver axis. Of note, a gut microbiome imbalance has been linked to COVID-19 severity in adult subjects, but it remains to be clarified. Based on the increased risk of inflammatory diseases in children with COVID-19, the potential correlation between gut microbiota dysfunction and COVID-19 needs to be studied in this population. We aimed to summarize the most recent evidence on this striking aspect of COVID-19 in childhood.
Core Tip: Growing evidence has shown that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 exerted a role upon the respiratory system. Due to the release of inflammatory cytokines, it might play a "pleiotropic" effect by modulating also the course of several diseases. In particular, recent adult data supported a bidirectional relationship between gut microbiota changes and coronavirus disease 2019 infection. However, similar evidence in the childhood population is less defined. We aimed to provide a comprehensive pediatric overview in this intriguing field.
