New coronavirus can cause oropharyngeal microecological disorders

A study jointly completed by Professor Ma Shengli, Director of the Oral Microecological Technology Innovation Center of Heilongjiang Province, and Professor Huang Zhiwei from the School of Life Sciences of Harbin Institute of Technology, and others showed that: the new crown virus infection changes the composition of the oropharyngeal microbiota, resulting in local microbiota The disorder causes the oral pathogens to translocate into the lungs, which eventually leads to concurrent lung infections.

The main complications of severe new coronary pneumonia, such as pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, are suspected to be caused by bacterial over-infection.

With the support of the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Science and Technology Application Technology R&D project, Professor Ma Shengli’s team quickly carried out closed-loop scientific research and epidemic research in the field of micro-ecology, including going to designated hospitals to collect throat swab samples from patients with new crowns and passing through the oropharynx.

Through metagenomic sequencing, Ma Shengli’s team obtained the characteristic flora of the pharynx of the new crown disease population, such as the enrichment of the conditional pathogenic bacteria Veronella and Macrococcus, as well as Propionibacterium pseudopropioni and Rossella And consumption of streptococcus.

The research team also found that the proportions of certain bacterial groups such as Klebsiella, Acinetobacter, and Serratia are positively correlated with the severity of the disease’s new coronavirus infection and systemic inflammation markers, suggesting that these oropharyngeal microbiota Changes may affect the severity of new coronary pneumonia by interfering with the inflammatory response.

Professor Ma Shengli's team observed that the oropharyngeal microbiome of patients with new crowns showed significant enrichment in amino acid metabolism and heterologous biodegradation and metabolism.

Based on the changes in the human microecology, Ma Shengli’s team also actively carried out cross-cooperation between medical and engineering, and developed a "new coronavirus rapid detection platform", which discussed the rapid screening of micro-droplets and microfluidic technologies for people at risk of virus infection.

Expert evaluation pointed out that the microbial barrier of the oral, nasopharyngeal cavity is the first barrier to the invasion of viruses and bacteria.

Professor Ma Shengli and Huang Zhiwei are the corresponding authors of this paper; Zhang Fan, Zhou Fengxia, and Li Hui are the first authors of the paper.