Fig. 3: The gut–brain axis as a therapeutic target for long COVID. | Molecular Psychiatry

Fig. 3: The gut–brain axis as a therapeutic target for long COVID.

From: Detrimental effects of COVID-19 in the brain and therapeutic options for long COVID: The role of Epstein–Barr virus and the gut–brain axis

Fig. 3

Patients with long COVID have persistent dysbiosis of the gut microbiome, resulting in a number of persistent GI symptoms, as well as neurological and psychiatric symptoms through the gut–brain axis. A plant-based diet, probiotics and prebiotics, and microbiome-derived metabolites [e.g., short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs: butyrate)] may have prophylactic or therapeutic potential for patients with long COVID. Given the role of the gut–microbiota–brain axis in neuroinflammation, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from healthy controls may be a potential therapeutic tool for patients with long COVID. In addition, given the crucial role of the vagus nerve in the gut–brain axis, vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) could improve a number of neurological and psychiatric symptoms in patients with long COVID. This is a slight modification of a previously published figure [94]. Part of the figure was designed using resources from Biorender.com.

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