COVID-19 asthma microbiome

Asthma is associated with severe outcomes of respiratory viral infections. The airway and oral microbiota play important roles in mediating immune responses to viral infections. This study evaluated differences in the nasopharyngeal and salivary microbiomes between patients with and without pre-existing asthma in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. We collected samples from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with asthma and COVID-19 patients without asthma. Using 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing, we characterized the nasopharyngeal and salivary microbiomes and analyzed differences at the community and taxa levels between asthma and non-asthma groups. Our results showed that the nasopharyngeal and salivary microbiomes harbor taxa-level, but not community-level differences between COVID-19 patients with and without asthma.