COVID Lockdowns Stunt Infants’ Gut Microbiome Development

A first of its kind metagenomic sequencing study that compared the microbiome development of infants born and raised their first year both prior to and during the pandemic. The study authors found that the latter suffered stunted growth in beneficial gut microbiota compared to the former as a result of lockdown measures that led to them being raised in a more sterile environment during their first year of life.

A longitudinal matched cohort study conducted in Hong Kong with stool samples collected from healthy infants at home prior to the pandemic, from Oct 2017–Jan 2020, and during the pandemic, from April 2020-Jan 2022, (n = 743), as well as concurrent samples from their mothers (n = 103), found, through genetic sequencing, that while there were no differences in microbiota diversity in the gut between the two cohorts one month after birth, the pandemic cohort had impaired neonatal microbial diversity from 2 months on including down regulation (reduced production) of two Bifidobacteria species critical to establishing innate host immunity, vitamin B synthesis, degradation of hexose sugars and maintaining gut balance. The pandemic cohort also had reduced abundance of three species of Klebsiella bacteria at 6 and 12 months of age compared to the pre-pandemic cohort.