How some probiotic scientists are working to address COVID-19
May 4, 2020/in ISAPP Science Blog, News /
By ISAPP board of directors
With the global spread of COVID-19, the scientific community has experienced an unusual interruption. Across every field, many laboratories are temporarily shuttered and research programs of all sizes are on hiatus.
In this global circumstance of research being put on hold, it is enlightening to consider what some scientists in the fields of probiotics, prebiotics, and fermented foods are working on the context of understanding ways to combat viral threats with PROBIOTICS.
Here, ISAPP shares words from some of these scientists—and how they have connected the dots from probiotics to coronavirus-related work with potential medical relevance.
Drs. Paul Wischmeyer and Anthony Sung, Duke University School of Medicine, USA: Probiotics for prevention or treatment of COVID-19 infection
We have conducted several randomized clinical trials of probiotics in COVID-19 prevention and treatment. These trials are based on multiple clinical trials and meta-analyses that have shown that probiotics may reduce upper and lower respiratory tract infections, sepsis, and ventilator associated pneumonia by 30-50%.
These benefits are due to the beneficial effects of probiotics on the immune system. The Wischmeyer laboratory and others have shown that probiotics, such as
Lactobacillus rhamnosus, can improve intestinal/lung barrier and homeostasis, increase regulatory T cells, improve anti-viral defense, and decrease pro-inflammatory cytokines in respiratory and systemic infections. These clinical benefits are especially relevant to individuals who have developed, or are at risk of developing COVID-19.
COVID-19 has been characterized by severe lower respiratory tract illness, and patients may manifest an excessive inflammatory response similar to cytokine release syndrome, which has been associated with increased complications and mortality. We hypothesize that probiotics will directly reduce COVID-19 infection risk and severity of disease/symptoms.
We will conduct a multicenter, randomized trial of the probiotic
Lactobacillus rhamnosus vs. placebo to decrease infections and improve outcomes. This trial will utilize a commercial probiotic, delivering 20 billion CFU of
Lactobacillus rhamnosus.
As the world waits in ‘lockdown’ mode, continued scientific progress for coronavirus prevention or treatment with Probiotics is critically important. All probiotic and prebiotic scientists are stepping up to pursue unique solutions.
Prof. Sarah Lebeer, University of Antwerp, Belgium:
Could the microbes in our upper and lower airways play a role in how we respond to the virus? Significant individual differences exist in the microbes that are prevalent and dominant in our airways. Lactobacilli are found in the respiratory tract, especially in the nasopharynx.
They might originate there from the oral cavity via the oronasopharynx, but we have found some strains that seem to be more adapted to the respiratory environment, for example by expressing catalase enzymes to withstand oxidative
stress.
For many years we have studied a different virus, namely rotavirus, that causes acute diarrhea in children, and have found that
Lactobacillus rhamnosus binds rotavirus and disables it, thereby blocking viral infection/multiplication.
Prof. Rodolphe Barrangou, North Carolina State University, USA: Engineering probiotic lactobacilli for vaccine development
Between NC State University and Colorado State University (CSU) there is a historical collaborative effort aiming at engineering probiotics to develop novel vaccines. The intersection of probiotics and antivirals is the focus here with expressing antigens on the cell surface of probiotics to develop oral vaccines.
We are actively engineering
Lactobacillus acidophilus probiotics expressing COVID-19 proteins to be tested as potential vaccines at CSU in the near future, as progress dictates.