Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 28, 2022; 28(40): 5801-5806
Published online Oct 28, 2022. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i40.5801
Interaction between gut microbiota and COVID-19 and its vaccines
John S M Leung
John S M Leung, Cardiothoracic Unit, St. Paul’s Hospital, Hong Kong, China
Author contributions: Leung JSM is the sole author and contributed to the entire article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: JSM Leung has received no fees for serving as a speaker, holds no paid position for any organization, received no funding from any source. Nor is he an employee of any company or establishment. He owns no stocks or shares in any commercial company, nor any patency in any form or context.
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: John S M Leung, FRCS (Ed), MBBS, Doctor, Cardiothoracic Unit, St. Paul’s Hospital, 2 Eastern Hospital Road, Hong Kong, China. leungsiumanjohn@yahoo.com.hk
Received: June 30, 2022
Peer-review started: June 30, 2022
First decision: August 1, 2022
Revised: September 7, 2022
Accepted: October 14, 2022
Article in press: October 14, 2022
Published online: October 28, 2022
Processing time: 120 Days and 2.1 Hours
Abstract

The whole world has been continuously afflicted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for the past 3 years. Many countries have tried many methods to control this virus infection with varying successes and failures. The gut microbiota is a biosystem spanning the entire length of the digestive tract and playing important roles in health and disease. It is much affected by COVID-19. In return it also substantially impacts infection. In particular, the gut microbiota has established a bidirectional interaction with the COVID-19 vaccines, enhancing or reducing vaccine efficacy by virtue of its varying components. Conversely, COVID-19 vaccines also make a substantial impact on the gut microbiota, re-ducing its overall population and biodiversity. It is hoped that by exploring and harnessing this bidirectional interaction we may break new ground and develop new methods to prevent and treat this formidable virus infection.

Keywords: Gut microbiota; COVID-19 vaccines; Vaccine interactions; Gut microbiota alterations

Core Tip: The gut microbiota is a biosystem spanning the entire length of the digestive tract and playing important roles in health and disease. It is much affected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In return it has impacts on the infection and a bidirectional interaction with the COVID-19 vaccines has been established, which enhances or reduces vaccine efficacy. Conversely, COVID-19 vaccines also make a substantial impact on the gut microbiota, reducing its overall population and biodi-versity. By exploring and harnessing this bidirectional interaction we may hopefully break new ground and develop new methods to fight this formidable pandemic.