Nasopharyngeal microbiota profiling of pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infectionOriginal paper
Karen Pendergrass is a microbiome researcher specializing in microbiome-targeted interventions (MBTIs). She systematically analyzes scientific literature to identify microbial patterns, develop hypotheses, and validate interventions. As the founder of the Microbiome Signatures Database, she bridges microbiome research with clinical practice. In 2012, based on her own investigative research, she became the first documented case of FMT for Celiac Disease, four years before the first published case study.
Read MoreWhat was studied?
Researchers compared nasopharyngeal microbiota in pregnant women with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection, enrolled during Spain's first COVID-19 wave in Barcelona (March to June 2020).
How was it studied?
Among 76 pregnant women, 38 were SARS-CoV-2 positive and 38 negative, based on antibodies and RT-PCR. Nasopharyngeal swabs underwent 16S rRNA V3-V4 sequencing, with taxa abundance and alpha/beta diversity compared between groups.
What did they find?
Infected women had a distinct overall microbiota composition (p = 0.001), with higher Tenericutes and Bacteroidetes phyla and more Prevotellaceae, plus higher richness and evenness. These shifts persisted even after acute infection resolved, and did not differ between mild and severe cases.
Why it matters
As the first study of nasopharyngeal microbiota in pregnancy, it suggests SARS-CoV-2 infection may leave a long-lasting shift in this microbial community, a vulnerable population during the pandemic.