Malnutrition, probiotics and respiratory infections

SUSANA ALVAREZ; JULIO VILLENA; SILVIA RACEDO; SUSANA SALVA; GRACIELA AGÜERO

Research Advances in Nutrition

Global Research Network

Lugar: Kerala, India; Año: 2007; p. 9 - 23

This article examines the current scientific literature dealing with the use of probiotic strains to prevent respiratory infections. More specifically, this paper reviews the work of our laboratory in the use of probiotics for the early recovery of the immune mechanisms against respiratory pathogens in malnourished hosts. We evaluated the effect of Lactobacillus casei CRL 431 or probiotic yoghurt on the prevention of a Streptococcus pneumoniae infection in protein-malnourished mice. The results reviewed here suggest that the addition of a probiotic strain or yoghurt to the repletion diet fed to malnourished mice has a beneficial effect because it significantly accelerates the recovery of the defence mechanisms against pneumococcal respiratory infection. According to our results, the use of probiotic bacteria as a supplement in a repletion diet would be able to induce a pattern of inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines that enhances the innate and adaptive immune responses. In addition, these cytokines would lead to a more efficient regulation of the inflammatory response, thus limiting the injury caused by the infection. Despite the uncertainties concerning the mechanisms involved and the human relevance of the effects observed in animal models, the present study provides a strong rationale for the hypothesis that probiotics consumption by malnourished children will accelerate the recovery of the immune mechanisms involved in the protection against respiratory infections.