Botanicals and the Gut Microbiome
Namrita Lall in Medicinal Plants for Cosmetics, Health and Diseases, 2022
In many instances when antibiotics are taken by individuals, the gastrointestinal microbiota gets disturbed, which leads to diarrhea. This is a common occurrence when taking aminopenicillins, cephalosporins and clindamycins (Bull and Plummer, 2015). Antibiotic-associated diarrhea is normally associated with a reduction in the integrity of the intestinal wall and mineral and vitamin metabolism (Johnston et al., 2012). It is the dysbiosis of the intestinal microbiota and the subsequent overgrowth of the bacterial pathogens that makes this a common occurrence when taking certain antibiotics. The role of probiotics in the prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhea is that probiotics have the ability to assist disrupted microbiota, enhancing a response from the host immune system to clear the pathogens from the host (McFarland, 2006).
The Role of the Microbiome on Human Health
Aruna Bakhru in Nutrition and Integrative Medicine, 2018
Overuse of antibiotics is recognized as a major factor in the depletion of the human microbiome and even when they are needed, these drugs are likely to kill commensal bacteria along with the pathogen (Blaser 2016). Investigators have argued that it is time to consider probiotics as an adjunct therapy for antibiotic administration. In particular, this has been advocated in the treatment of Clostridium difficile infection (Spinler et al. 2016). However, given the impact of antibiotics on the microbiome, adjunct therapies could help avoid the destruction of the microbiome and subsequent altered physiology, barrier function, and risk of inflammatory-driven diseases. A recent trial in children looked at the adjunct administration of yogurt containing three probiotic bacteria versus control pasteurized yogurt for children receiving prescribed antibiotics. The study reported that the probiotics group had a lower and less severe incidence of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (Fox et al. 2015).
Probiotics and their Effect on Maternal and Neonatal Health
Martin Colin R, Derek Larkin in Probiotics in Mental Health, 2018
Probiotics are believed to boost immune function, inhibit growth of harmful bacteria and increase resistance to some infections and disease-causing bacteria. Some evidence supports that human immune function may be facilitated by growing the number of IgA populating plasma cells, T lymphocytes, natural killer cells and improving phagocytosis in the individual (Reid et al., 2003; Ouwehand, 2002). As such, it may be advantageous to take probiotics in conjunction with antibiotics, since probiotic friendly bacteria facilitate the immune system to defend the body from pathogenic invaders. A study conducted in Pennsylvania School of Medicine (2010) found that Antibiotic Associated diarrhea (AAD) and Clostridium Difficile Infection (CDI) are common side-effects from taking broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy. In a prospective study, AAD was observed in 4.9% of patients who took long standing antibiotic medication, with 50% of participants proving positive for Clostridium Difficile toxin B (Wistrom, 2001). Since incidence of CDI is on the increase (McDonald, 2006), this emphasizes a requirement for preventative strategies to reduce rates of infection. Probiotics have been shown to reduce AAD and CDI through facilitating regeneration of intestinal microbiota, when antibiotic treatment is administered simultaneously (Hickson et al., 2007; McFarland, 2006, 2009). Evidence promotes that introducing healthy bacteria into the GI tract helps maintain immune system activity, which in sequence assists the human body to respond more rapidly to new infections. Consequently, promoting probiotic intake may be more effective than prescribing antibiotics that decrease effectiveness of the immune system by eradicating communal friendly GI tract bacteria.
The mechanisms and safety of probiotics against toxigenic clostridium difficile
Published in Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 2020
Dianbin Liu, Lingbing Zeng, Zhihan Yan, Junqi Jia, Jing Gao, Yanxia Wei
Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is an anaerobic Gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium, which is the main cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) and pseudomembranous colitis in human. The pseudomembranous colitis and infrequent toxic megacolon caused by C. difficile infection (CDI) are potentially fatal [1]. With the emergence of hypervirulent strains, the incidence of CDI has increased significantly, which is becoming a public health problem [2,3]. The main virulence factors of C. difficile are Toxins A (TcdA) and Toxin B (TcdB). It was shown that several antibiotics were involved in antibiotic-associated diarrhea. The treatment of antibiotics allowed the colonization and growth of C. difficile [4,5] and CDI was responsible for the majority of antibiotic-associated diarrhea [6]. The frequency, duration of high-risk antibiotic therapy, and the number of antibiotics prescribed have been recommended to be minimized for reducing CDI risk [7]. In addition, the correlation between the usage of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and the increased risk of CDI has been recognized [8,9].
Bezlotoxumab prevents extraintestinal organ damage induced by Clostridioides difficile infection
Published in Gut Microbes, 2022
Steven J. Mileto, Melanie L. Hutton, Sarah L. Walton, Antariksh Das, Lisa J. Ioannidis, Don Ketagoda, Kylie M. Quinn, Kate M. Denton, Diana S. Hansen, Dena Lyras
Clostridioides difficile is the most commonly identified infectious cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea in developed countries, with infection resulting in a variety of disease symptoms ranging from asymptomatic carriage, mild and self-limiting diarrhea, to severe diarrhea with potential life-threatening complications.1 Disease is toxin-mediated and results from the production and activity of two major toxins, TcdA and TcdB, following vegetative cell colonization of the anaerobic large intestine.1 A third toxin, CDT, present in roughly one third of clinical isolates,2,3 is also implicated in disease, with a suspected role in enhancing the damage induced by TcdA and TcdB and aiding in colonization.4,5 Disease presentation during C. difficile infection (CDI) may be influenced by the toxin profile or clade of a given strain.6 Notably, TcdB appears to be more prevalent amongst strains and has many variant forms, some of which are encoded by epidemic human and animal strains, and may induce more severe cytopathic effects in vitro.7–12 TcdB from ribotype 027 strains, which have contributed to several outbreaks of severe disease over the last two decades, also appears dissimilar to historical TcdB, with variations in the combined repetitive oligo-peptides (CROPS) domain.13 Notably, treatment of embryonic zebrafish with ribotype 027 TcdB induced more severe and extensive pathologies than historical TcdB, suggesting variations in TcdB may alter tissue tropism.13
Improved gut microbiome recovery following drug therapy is linked to abundance and replication of probiotic strains
Published in Gut Microbes, 2022
Jamie FitzGerald, Shriram Patel, Julia Eckenberger, Eric Guillemard, Patrick Veiga, Florent Schäfer, Jens Walter, Marcus J Claesson, Muriel Derrien
Probiotics are efficacious in the treatment of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (reviewed in28), but it is unclear how they aid the restoration of the microbiome after antibiotics. We recently showed that the consumption of a multi-strain product consisting of yogurt and probiotic strains induces a faster recovery in subjects that undertook Hp eradication therapy, which was reflected by lower within-subject beta-diversity dissimilarity to baseline, enhanced short-chain fatty acids, and compositional differences in the fecal microbiota post-Hp treatment.24 Here, we used metagenomic approaches with strain-level resolution to determine the contribution of the individual bacterial strains to structural and functional recovery.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Antibiotic
- Carbohydrate Metabolism
- Microbiome
- Diarrhea
- Pathogen
- Gut Microbiota
- Short-Chain Fatty Acid
- Clostridioides Difficile
- Feces
- Ulcerative Colitis