Guidance for substantiating the evidence for beneficial effects of probiotics: prevention and management of infections by probiotics
Open accessAbstract
The rationale for the use of probiotics in the management of infectious diseases is supported by their potential to influence and stabilize the composition of gut microbiota, enhance colonization resistance, and modulate immune function parameters. A literature review was conducted to determine the efficacy of using probiotics in selected infections: 1) infectious diarrhea in infants and children, 2) traveler's diarrhea, 3) necrotizing enterocolitis in infants, 4) Helicobacter pylori infection, 5) respiratory tract infections in adults and children, 6) ear, nose, and throat infections, and 7) infectious complications in surgical and critically ill patients. The different types of infections that have been subject to clinical studies with different probiotics obviously prevent any generic conclusions. Furthermore, the lack of consistency among studies focusing on 1 specific infection, in study design, applied probiotic strains, outcome parameters, and study population, along with the still limited number of studies, preclude clear and definite conclusions on the efficacy of probiotics and illustrate the need for better-aligned study designs and methodology. Exceptions were the management of infectious diarrhea in infants and traveler's diarrhea, antibiotic-associated diarrhea, and necrotizing enterocolitis. Sufficient consistent data exist for these applications to conclude that certain probiotics, under certain conditions, and in certain target populations, are beneficial in…
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Confirmation of probiotic identity, viability, and number of organisms by quantitative culture and molecular methods was done in only eight trials.
“Confirmation of probiotic identity, viability, and number of organisms by quantitative culture and molecular methods was done in only eight trials but should be standard in research studies (Rijkers 2010; Wolvers 2010).”
From Probiotics for treating acute infectious diarrhoea (2020) · cites this paper as Wolvers 2010
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- Authors
- Wolvers, D., Antoine, J.-M., Myllyluoma, E., Schrezenmeir, J., Szajewska, H., & Rijkers, G. T.
- Affiliations
- Danone (France) (FR)
- University of Helsinki (FI)
- Max Rubner Institut (DE)
- Medical University of Warsaw (PL)
- University Medical Center Utrecht (NL)
- Venue
- The Journal of Nutrition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-03
- Volume
- 140
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 698S-712S
- ISSN
- 0022-3166 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2130965965
- Cited by
- 268
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 33
- FWCI
- 4.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Nutrition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- OpenAgrar (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Probiotics and Fermented Foods
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Immunology and Allergy › Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Research
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Infant Nutrition and Health
- Keywords
- probiotics, allergy, atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, asthma, hygiene hypothesis, gut microbiota, immune response, probiotic strain selection, intervention timing, allergy prevention
- MeSH terms
- Communicable Diseases, Gastrointestinal Diseases, Humans, Respiratory Tract Infections, Probiotics
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