Gut microbiota and COVID-19: An intriguing pediatric perspective

Table 3 Main findings of the studies on the association between infant gut microbiota and coronavirus disease 2019

Ref.	Study design and methods	Population (n)	Main findings
Romano-Keeler et al[44]	Observational cohort study	Twenty-one COVID-19 positive mothers delivering between March and August 2020 with a mean age of 26 (17-42) yr	Delayed cord clamping and skin-to-skin avoided; infants admitted to the NICU with maternal breast milk restricted. Discharge arranged with COVID-19 negative family members. All infants COVID-19 negative at 24 and 48 h. Changes in perinatal care might negatively affect gut microbiome pattern early in life
Salvatori et al[57]	Case report	Two maternal–infant dyads with a positive nasopharyngeal swab for SARS-CoV-2 both in the mother and in the child	SARS-CoV-2 was not detected by RT-PCR in breast milk samples of both mothers
Gómez-Torres et al[68]	Prospective case-control study	(1) 37 women with full-term pregnancies and mild SARS-CoV-2 infection; and (2) 63 healthy controls	No difference nor in Alpha-neither in Beta-diversity between breast milk samples collected from the two groups; Staphylococcus and Streptococcus were the most abundant genera and the only ones detected in all the samples. Disease state (symptomatic or asymptomatic infection) did not affect the metataxonomic profile

SARS-CoV-2: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; COVID-19: Coronavirus disease 2019; NICU: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; MS: Multiple sclerosis; MIS-C: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.