The hygiene hypothesis, the COVID pandemic, and consequences for the human microbiome
B Brett Finlay
(1, 2)
,
Katherine R Amato
(2, 3)
,
Meghan Azad
(2, 4)
,
Martin J Blaser
(2, 5)
,
Thomas C G Bosch
(2, 6)
,
Hiutung Chu
(2, 7)
,
Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello
(2, 5)
,
Stanislav Dusko Ehrlich
(8, 2)
,
Eran Elinav
(9, 2, 10)
,
Naama Geva-Zatorsky
(2, 11)
,
Philippe Gros
(2, 12)
,
Karen Guillemin
(2, 13)
,
Frédéric Keck
(2, 14)
,
Tal Korem
(2, 15)
,
Margaret J Mcfall-Ngai
(2, 16)
,
Melissa K Melby
(2, 17)
,
Mark Nichter
(2, 18)
,
Sven Pettersson
(2, 19)
,
Hendrik Poinar
(2, 20)
,
Tobias Rees
(2, 21)
,
Carolina Tropini
(2, 1)
,
Liping Zhao
(2, 5)
,
Tamara Giles-Vernick
(2, 22)
1
UBC -
University of British Columbia [Canada]
2 CIFAR - Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
3 Northwestern University [Evanston]
4 Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba [Winnipeg, Canada]
5 RU - Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey [New Brunswick]
6 CAU - Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel = Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel = Université Christian-Albrechts de Kiel
7 UC San Diego - University of California [San Diego]
8 MGP (US 1367) - MetaGenoPolis
9 Weizmann Institute of Science [Rehovot, Israël]
10 DKFZ - German Cancer Research Center - Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum [Heidelberg]
11 Technion - Israel Institute of Technology [Haifa]
12 McGill University = Université McGill [Montréal, Canada]
13 University of Oregon [Eugene]
14 LAS - Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale
15 Columbia University [New York]
16 UH - University of Hawai'i [Honolulu]
17 University of Delaware [Newark]
18 University of Arizona
19 NTU - Nanyang Technological University [Singapour]
20 McMaster University [Hamilton, Ontario]
21 Berggruen Institute [Los Angeles, California]
22 Anthropologie et écologie de l’émergence des maladies - Anthropology and Ecology of Disease Emergence
2 CIFAR - Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
3 Northwestern University [Evanston]
4 Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba [Winnipeg, Canada]
5 RU - Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey [New Brunswick]
6 CAU - Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel = Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel = Université Christian-Albrechts de Kiel
7 UC San Diego - University of California [San Diego]
8 MGP (US 1367) - MetaGenoPolis
9 Weizmann Institute of Science [Rehovot, Israël]
10 DKFZ - German Cancer Research Center - Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum [Heidelberg]
11 Technion - Israel Institute of Technology [Haifa]
12 McGill University = Université McGill [Montréal, Canada]
13 University of Oregon [Eugene]
14 LAS - Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale
15 Columbia University [New York]
16 UH - University of Hawai'i [Honolulu]
17 University of Delaware [Newark]
18 University of Arizona
19 NTU - Nanyang Technological University [Singapour]
20 McMaster University [Hamilton, Ontario]
21 Berggruen Institute [Los Angeles, California]
22 Anthropologie et écologie de l’émergence des maladies - Anthropology and Ecology of Disease Emergence
Meghan Azad
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 807747
- ORCID : 0000-0002-5942-4444
Philippe Gros
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 18464
- IdHAL : philippe-c-gros
- ORCID : 0000-0003-4905-1581
- IdRef : 121657094
Tamara Giles-Vernick
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- Fonction : Auteur correspondant
- PersonId : 1183711
- IdHAL : tamara-giles-vernick
- ORCID : 0000-0003-2873-8544
Connectez-vous pour contacter l'auteur
Résumé
The COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to affect the human microbiome in infected and uninfected individuals, having a substantial impact on human health over the long term. This pandemic intersects with a decades-long decline in microbial diversity and ancestral microbes due to hygiene, antibiotics, and urban living (the hygiene hypothesis). High-risk groups succumbing to COVID-19 include those with preexisting conditions, such as diabetes and obesity, which are also associated with microbiome abnormalities. Current pandemic control measures and practices will have broad, uneven, and potentially long-term effects for the human microbiome across the planet, given the implementation of physical separation, extensive hygiene, travel barriers, and other measures that influence overall microbial loss and inability for reinoculation. Although much remains uncertain or unknown about the virus and its consequences, implementing pandemic control practices could significantly affect the microbiome. In this Perspective, we explore many facets of COVID-19−induced societal changes and their possible effects on the microbiome, and discuss current and future challenges regarding the interplay between this pandemic and the microbiome. Recent recognition of the microbiome’s influence on human health makes it critical to consider both how the microbiome, shaped by biosocial processes, affects susceptibility to the coronavirus and, conversely, how COVID-19 disease and prevention measures may affect the microbiome. This knowledge may prove key in prevention and treatment, and long-term biological and social outcomes of this pandemic.