Partial re-analysis of upper respiratory tract microbiome of COVID-19 positive patient reveals diverse microbial species

Understanding the microbiome of the respiratory tract of COVID-19 positive patient is important for identifying any possible microbial co-infectant of the disease that can result in severe disease. With this aim in mind, this study undertook a partial re-analysis of a metagenomics dataset from European Nucleotide Archive for the upper respiratory tract microbiome of a COVID-19 positive patient. Preliminary results reveal a disturbing diverse microbiota where BLAST search of 100 reads lead to confirmatory identification of 22 microbial species. Such data suggests that SARS-CoV-2 is capable of causing significant damage to the lung epithelial cells that likely results in cell lysis. Exudates of the cellular cytoplasmic content thereafter provide sufficient nutrients for the growth of multiple types of microbial species common in the air breathe in. Overall, analysis of the metagenome of upper respiratory tract of COVID-19 positive patient provides valuable insights into the pathological potential of SARS-CoV-2 in causing lung epithelium damage that releases cytoplasmic content that fuelled the outgrowth of microbial species in air breathe in by the patient.