REDUCING COVID-19 MORTALITY BY CHARACTERIZING THE IMMUNOEPIGENETIC GUT MICROBIOME INTERACTIONS

Immune health has been implicated in COVID-19 progression and severe clinical outcomes. Recent studies suggest differences in mortality to COVID-19 may originate from individual variability in immune health, which is in part regulated by the plasticity/diversity of lymphocytes that is shaped by immunoepigenetic-gut microbiome interactions. Epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, regulate immune cell diversity and function, alterations to which may affect the susceptibility of individuals to disease. Furthermore, recent findings by the investigators offer the intriguing premise that the gut microbiome composition and/or diversity could promote or protect against the development of COVID-19 according to pre-infection epigenetic regulation of monocytes, whereas dysbiosis of the microbiome as a result of age or chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus epigenetically alters the natural development of the immune system thereby increasing individual susceptibility to severe COVID-19 presentation. The gut microbiome composition and diversity could be modified with diet, and this project will test the extent to which this modification may relate to improvements in COVID-19 clinical outcomes. In particular, this project will identify pre- and probiotic factors including diet that may modify immune health. Results of this study will be transformative, with significant implications to improve survival and decrease severity of COVID-19 complications among civilians and soldiers.