Alterations in oral microbiomes in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant Infected
and Recovery Patients
Abstract
Objective Our study aimed to investigate the oral microbiome of
patients infected with the Omicron variant (PIOV) and the changes in
oral microbiota during the recovery of infection, compared to those
infected with the original strain (PIOS) and provide a theoretical
foundation for early diagnosis and disease prognosis of PIOV from the
perspective of microecology. Design We collected 963 samples of
tongue-coating prospectively, including 349 samples of PIOV, 242 samples
of recovered patients from PIOV (RP), 300 samples of healthy controls
(HC), and 72 samples of PIOS. We randomly selected tongue-coating
samples from PIOV and HC at a ratio of 2:1, respectively, as the
discovery cohort and validation cohort. Results Oral microbial
diversity was significantly increased in PIOV. Compared to HC,
conditional pathogenic bacteria were increased in PIOV. The classifier
based on 6 optimal oral microbial markers had high diagnostic efficiency
in both cohorts. Oral microbiota numbers were changed as the disease
recovered. Conclusion For the first time, our study
characterizes the oral microbiota of PIOV and RP, successfully
establishes and validates the noninvasive diagnostic model of PIOV, and
outlines the correlation between the OTUs of microbiota and clinical
indicators.