Fecal microbiota transplantation alleviates mild‐moderate COVID‐19 associated diarrhoea and depression symptoms: A prospective study of a randomized, double‐blind clinical trial
Xia Jiang, Xian Gao, Jiaqi Ding, Bo Pang, Yongbin Pei, Zifeng Zhao, Zifeng Zhao, Ning Zhao, Zibin Wang, Chengyang Chen, Da Gao, Yan Fu, Feifan Wang, Chengcheng Liu, Zheng Zhang, Zhongxin Li, Zengren Zhao, Zengren Zhao
Abstract
Currently, the emergence of the endemic Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation still poses a serious threat to public health. However, it remains elusive about the role of fecal microbiota transplantation in treating COVID-19. We performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial enrolling a cohort of 40 COVID-19 patients with mild-moderate symptoms. Our results showed that fecal microbiota transplantation provided an amelioration in diarrhoea (p = 0.026) of digestive system and depression (p = 0.006) of neuropsychiatric-related symptom in COVID-19 patients, respectively. Meanwhile, we found that the number of patients with diarrhoea decreased from 19 to 0 on day 7 after fecal microbiota transplantation treatment, and it was statistically changed compared to the placebo group (p = 0.047). Of note, the serum concentration of aspartate aminotransferase-to-alanine aminotransferase ratio (AST/ALT, fecal microbiota transplantation, pre vs. post: 0.966 vs. 0.817), a biomarker for predicting long COVID-19, was significantly reduced by fecal microbiota transplantation. In all, our study supports that fecal microbiota transplantation could be a novel therapeutic strategy for COVID-19 patients with diarrhoea and depressive symptoms, which is potentially valuable in ameliorating long COVID-19 symptoms.