Effects of Probiotics on Diarrhea and CD4 Cell Count in People Living With HIV: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Open accessAbstract
Gastrointestinal probiotics play an important role in maintaining intestinal bacteria homeostasis. They might benefit people with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), which remains a global health challenge. However, there is a controversy regarding the efficacy of probiotics for the treatment of AIDS. This study systematically reviewed the evidence of the effects of existing probiotic interventions on AIDS and sought to provide information on the role of probiotics in the treatment of HIV/AIDS patients. A meta-analysis of studies identified by screening multiple databases was performed using a fixed-effects model in Review Manager 5.2 software. The meta-analysis showed that probiotics could reduce the incidence of AIDS-related diarrhea (RR = 0.60 (95% CI: 0.44–0.82), p = 0.001). The short-term use of probiotics (supplementation duration shorter than 30 days) did not reduce the incidence of diarrhea (RR = 0.76 (95% CI: 0.51–1.14), p = 0.19), while the long-term use of probiotics (supplementation duration longer than 30 days) reduced diarrhea (RR = 0.47 (95% CI: 0.29–0.76), p = 0.002). Probiotics had no effect on CD4 cell counts in HIV/AIDS patients (MD = 21.24 (95% CI: −12.95–55.39), p = 0.22). Our data support that probiotics were associated with an obvious reduction in AIDS-related diarrhea, which indicates the need for additional research on this potential preventive strategy for AIDS.
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In HIV patients, it takes more than 30 days to see the beneficial effects of probiotics on diarrhea after a single dose of 1 × 109 CFU/mL for 30 days.
“Another study investigated the therapeutic potential of probiotics in reducing the incidence of diarrhea after administration of a single dose of probiotics (1 × 109 CFU/mL) for 30 days in HIV patients. Researchers found that it takes more than 30 days to see the beneficial effects of the probiotics [173].”
From The Potential Impact of Probiotics on Human Health: An Update on Their Health-Promoting Properties (2024) · cites this paper as [173]
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- Authors
- Zhang, X.-L., Chen, M.-H., Geng, S.-T., Yu, J., Kuang, Y.-Q., Luo, H.-Y., & Wang, K.-H.
- Affiliations
- Kunming Medical University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Kuang, Yi-Qun
- Luo, Hua-You
- Venue
- Frontiers in Pharmacology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2021-07-19
- Volume
- 12
- Pages
- 570520-570520
- ISSN
- 1663-9812 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8326399
- OpenAlex
- W3183932670
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 6
- FWCI
- 0.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Pharmacology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (81660094, 32060177)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Probiotics and Fermented Foods
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Virology › HIV Research and Treatment
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
- Keywords
- probiotics, HIV/AIDS, AIDS-related diarrhea, CD4 count, diarrhea prevention
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