Probiotics and prebiotics: potential prevention and therapeutic target for nutritional management of COVID-19?

Nutr Res Rev. 2021 Oct 20:1-42. doi: 10.1017/S0954422421000317. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTScientists are working to identify prevention/treatment methods and clinical outcomes of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Nutritional status and diet have a major impact on the COVID-19 health-disease process, mainly due to the bidirectional interaction between gut-lung axis. Individuals with inadequate nutritional status have a pre-existing imbalance in the gut microbiota and immunity as seen in obesity, diabetes, hypertension, or other chronic diseases. Communication between the gut microbiota and lungs or other organs and systems may trigger worse clinical outcomes in viral respiratory infections. Thus, this review addresses new insights into the use of probiotics and prebiotics as a preventive nutritional strategy in managing respiratory infections such as COVID-19 and highlighting their anti-inflammatory effects against the main signs and symptoms associated with COVID-19. The search for studies was performed through Pubmed, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Web of Science databases; relevant clinical articles were included. Significant randomized clinical trials suggest that specific probiotics and/or prebiotics reduce diarrhoea, abdominal pain, vomiting, headache, cough, sore throat, fever, and viral infection complications such as acute respiratory distress syndrome. These beneficial effects are linked with modulation of the microbiota, products of microbial metabolism with a...
Source: Cell Research - Category: Cytology Authors: Source Type: research