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Stressful events induce long-term gut microbiota dysbiosis and associated post-traumatic stress symptoms in healthcare workers fighting against COVID-19

OBJECTIVE: The microbiota-gut-brain axis is a key pathway perturbed by prolonged stressors to produce brain and behavioral disorders. Frontline healthcare workers (FHWs) fighting against COVID-19 typically experience stressful event sequences and manifest some mental symptoms; however, the role of g...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Gao, Fengjie, Guo, Ruijin, Ma, Qingyan, Li, Yening, Wang, Wei, Fan, Yajuan, Ju, Yanmei, Zhao, Binbin, Gao, Yuan, Qian, Li, Yang, Zai, He, Xiaoyan, Jin, Xiaoying, Liu, Yixin, Peng, Yuan, Chen, Ce, Chen, Yunchun, Gao, Chengge, Zhu, Feng, Ma, Xiancang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier B.V. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8837476/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35157946
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.02.024
Descripción
Sumario:OBJECTIVE: The microbiota-gut-brain axis is a key pathway perturbed by prolonged stressors to produce brain and behavioral disorders. Frontline healthcare workers (FHWs) fighting against COVID-19 typically experience stressful event sequences and manifest some mental symptoms; however, the role of gut microbiota in such stress-induced mental problems remains unclear. We investigated the association between the psychological stress of FHW and gut microbiota. METHODS: We used full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing to characterize the longitudinal changes in gut microbiota and investigated the impact of microbial changes on FHWs' mental status. RESULTS: Stressful events induced significant depression, anxiety, and stress in FHWs and disrupted the gut microbiome; gut dysbiosis persisted for at least half a year. Different microbes followed discrete trajectories during the half-year of follow-up. Microbes associated with mental health were mainly Faecalibacterium spp. and [Eubacterium] eligens group spp. with anti-inflammatory effects. Of note, the prediction model indicated that low abundance of [Eubacterium] hallii group uncultured bacterium and high abundance of Bacteroides eggerthii at Day 0 (immediately after the two-month frontline work) were significant determinants of the reappearance of post-traumatic stress symptoms in FHWs. LIMITATIONS: The lack of metabolomic evidence and animal experiments result in the unclear mechanism of gut dysbiosis-related stress symptoms. CONCLUSION: The stressful event sequences of fighting against COVID-19 induce characteristic longitudinal changes in gut microbiota, which underlies dynamic mental state changes.