Probiotics as a Weapon in the Fight Against COVID-19
Review of the potential benefits of probiotics for COVID-19.
Stavropoulou et al., 15 Dec 2020, peer-reviewed, 2 authors.
Abstract: OPINION
published: 15 December 2020
doi: 10.3389/fnut.2020.614986
Probiotics as a Weapon in the Fight
Against COVID-19
Elisavet Stavropoulou 1,2,3* and Eugenia Bezirtzoglou 4
1
Department of Medicine, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland, 2 Service of Infectious
Diseases, Central Institute of Valais Hospitals, Sion, Switzerland, 3 Department of Medicine, Lausanne University Hospital and
University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, 4 Laboratory of Hygiene and Environmental Protection, Medical School,
Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece
Keywords: COVID-19, probiotics, immunology, coronaviruses (CoV), vanA, adjuvant, therapy, protein E
Edited by:
Zhaojun Wei,
Hefei University of Technology, China
Reviewed by:
Kiran Thakur,
Hefei University of Technology, China
*Correspondence:
Elisavet Stavropoulou
elisabeth.stavropoulou@gmail.com
Specialty section:
This article was submitted to
Nutrition and Food Science
Technology,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Nutrition
Received: 07 October 2020
Accepted: 24 November 2020
Published: 15 December 2020
Citation:
Stavropoulou E and Bezirtzoglou E
(2020) Probiotics as a Weapon in the
Fight Against COVID-19.
Front. Nutr. 7:614986.
doi: 10.3389/fnut.2020.614986
Frontiers in Nutrition | www.frontiersin.org
In our previously published work, we support that probiotics could be used as an adjunctive
treatment against COVID-19 (1) and other colleagues have also focused their attention on this
subject (2, 3).
Probiotics boost the immune system, enhance the mucosal barrier function and inhibit bacterial
adherence and invasion capacity in the intestinal epithelium by being in a direct antagonism with
pathogenic bacteria (1). The gut-lung axis is involved in the pathogenicity of bacterial and viral
infections, as the intestinal microbiota boosts the alveolar macrophage activity, thus having a
protective role in host defense against pneumonia (1). Along these lines, current clinical evidence
connects gut, lung, and brain as an entity with communication mediated through complex neural,
immunologic inflammatory, and neuroendocrine networks, the so called gut-brain-lung axis (4).
There are indications in animals and humans that intestinal microbiota provides bacteria to the
lungs, as abundance of Bacteroides sp. is observed in the lung following sepsis (5). Moreover,
following sepsis, neurologic and cognitive outcomes are observed (4, 6). Without any doubt, the
importance of the gut microbiome is stated (1). The composition of the gut microbiome may be
used as a predictive tool of disease development and infection severity (1, 7, 8).
Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) are of major importance for the developing of the innate
immune response (9). Probiotics regulate the innate immune cells via interactions between cell wall
components or metabolites with host PRRs (10). Yet, probiotic bacteria are activating Dendritic
Cells (DCs) and macrophages boosting adaptive immune responses (B cell differentiation, T cell
homing, Th17 cell stimulation) (11). The expression of Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs) is
inflamed in the lung cells during inflammation processes. In this context, macrophages, monocytes
and neutrophils are responding by increasing levels of PAMPs (Pathogen-Associated Molecular
patterns) and DAMPs (Danger-Associated Molecular Patterns) (12).
Besides that, the PRRs recognize DAMPs (Danger-Associated Molecular Patterns) as danger
signals..
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