COVID-19 Infection and Gut Microbial Dysbiosis Among Filipinos with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

<h4>Background</h4>Both type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and COVID-19 are associated with gut microbial alterations. It remains unclear whether COVID-19 causes further gut dysbiosis among individuals with T2DM.<h4>Objective</h4>This study aimed to characterize the gut microbiome of Filipinos with T2DM who had COVID-19.<h4>Methodology</h4>101 Filipinos, aged 30-59, residing in the Greater Manila Area, were recruited into one of four groups: non-COVID/non-T2DM (A), COVID-recovered/non-T2DM (B), non-COVID/T2DM (C), and COVID-recovered/T2DM (D). Gut microbial composition was characterized through 16S rRNA gene profiling of stool samples using Illumina MiSeq-nextgeneration Sequencing. These sequences were subjected to mothur and PICRUSt2 for taxonomic and functional analyses.<h4>Results</h4>Gut microbial analysis revealed potential disease biomarkers, as <i>Roseburia</i> is more abundant among participants with COVID-19 history, while <i>Parabacteroides</i> is more abundant among participants with T2DM. Principal coordinate analysis (PCOA) revealed that participants with T2DM clustered together, while participants without T2DM displayed significantly different clustering.<h4>Conclusion</h4>These findings suggest that COVID-19 does not cause further gut dysbiosis among individuals with T2DM and that T2DM exerts a stronger influence on the gut microbiome compared to COVID-19. These findings are useful for clinicians to better understand the COVID-19 risk to T2DM.