Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2022 Apr 25;13:895193. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.895193

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

Copyright © 2022 Xu, Yang, Liu and Zhang.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

PMC Copyright notice

Different changes in the “gut-lung axis” after infection with COVID-19. Respiratory tract infection increases the production of cytokines and chemokines and causes changes in the microbial composition of microflora. Changes in the lung microbiome may cause specific host immune responses. The high expression of ACE2 in the small intestine makes small intestinal epithelial cells highly sensitive to SARS-CoV-2, and the viral infection leads to intestinal malabsorption, secretion imbalance, and diarrhea. SARS-CoV-2 RNA has been detected in fecal sample of COVID-19 patients.