Metformin Therapy Changes Gut Microbiota Alpha-Diversity in COVID-19 Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: The Role of SARS-CoV-2 Variants and Antibiotic Treatment
Pavlo Petakh, Iryna Kamyshna, Valentyn Oksenych, Denis Kainov, Aleksandr Kamyshnyi
doi:10.20944/preprints202304.1127.v1
The gut microbiota plays a crucial role in maintaining host health and has a significant impact on human health and disease. In this study, we investigated the alpha diversity of gut microbiota in COVID-19 patients and analyzed the impact of COVID-19 variants, antibiotic treatment, type 2 diabetes (T2D), and metformin therapy on gut microbiota composition and diversity. We used a culture-based method to analyze the gut microbiota and calculated alphadiversity using the Shannon H' and Simpson 1/D indices. We collected clinical data, such as length of hospital stay (LoS), C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio. We found that patients with T2D had significantly lower alpha-diversity than those without T2D. Antibiotic use was associated with a reduction in alpha-diversity, while metformin therapy was associated with an increase. We did not find significant differences in alpha-diversity between the Delta and Omicron groups. Length of hospital stay, CRP levels, and NLR showed weak to moderate correlations with alpha diversity. Our findings suggest that maintaining a diverse gut microbiota may benefit COVID-19 patients with T2D. Interventions aimed at preserving or restoring gut microbiota diversity, such as avoiding unnecessary antibiotic use and promoting metformin therapy, may improve patient outcomes.
Author Contributions: Conceptualization, A.K.; methodology, A.K. and P.P..; software, A.K. and P.P.; validation, A.K., P.P. and I.K.; formal analysis, I.K.; investigation, P.P.; resources, A.K.; data curation, A.K.; writing-original draft preparation, P.P.; writing-review and editing, A.K., V.O., D.K.; visualization, P.P. and A.K.; supervision, A.K.; project administration, A.K.. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Institutional Review Board Statement: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Uzhhorod National Univesrity (11.02.20/11ab) Informed Consent Statement: Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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