Oropharyngeal Probiotic ENT-K12 Prevents Respiratory Tract Infections Among Frontline Medical Staff Fighting Against COVID-19: A Pilot Study
Wang et al.,
Oropharyngeal Probiotic ENT-K12 Prevents Respiratory Tract Infections Among Frontline Medical Staff Fighting..,
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol., doi:10.3389/fbioe.2021.646184
Prophylaxis RCT in China with 98 healthcare workes in close contact with COVID-19 patients treated with Bactoblis oropharyngeal probiotic containing S. thermophilus ENT-K12, and 95 control patients, showing lower incidence of respiratory infections with treatment (none were confirmed COVID-19, details of testing are not provided).
The immune effects of probiotics are strain-specific.
Wang et al., 24 Jun 2021, peer-reviewed, 13 authors.
Abstract: ORIGINAL RESEARCH
published: 24 June 2021
doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.646184
Oropharyngeal Probiotic ENT-K12
Prevents Respiratory Tract Infections
Among Frontline Medical Staff
Fighting Against COVID-19: A Pilot
Study
Edited by:
Stephen Allen Morse,
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), United States
Reviewed by:
Dorothee Von Laer,
Innsbruck Medical University, Austria
Sumit Ghosh,
The Research Institute at Nationwide
Children’s Hospital, United States
*Correspondence:
Qiang Wang
wangqiang@wust.edu.cn
Qingming Wu
wuhe9224@sina.com
Baoli Zhu
zhubaoli@im.ac.cn
Junbo Xia
xjb47@126.com
† These authors have contributed
equally to this work and share first
authorship
Specialty section:
This article was submitted to
Biosafety and Biosecurity,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Bioengineering and
Biotechnology
Received: 04 January 2021
Accepted: 11 May 2021
Published: 24 June 2021
Citation:
Wang Q, Lin X, Xiang X, Liu W,
Fang Y, Chen H, Tang F, Guo H,
Chen D, Hu X, Wu Q, Zhu B and Xia J
(2021) Oropharyngeal Probiotic
ENT-K12 Prevents Respiratory Tract
Infections Among Frontline Medical
Staff Fighting Against COVID-19:
A Pilot Study.
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 9:646184.
doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.646184
Qiang Wang 1* † , Xuan Lin 2† , Xiaochen Xiang 1 , Wanxin Liu 1 , Ying Fang 2 , Haiping Chen 2 ,
Fang Tang 2 , Hongyan Guo 2 , Di Chen 2 , Xiafen Hu 1 , Qingming Wu 1* , Baoli Zhu 3,4,5,6* and
Junbo Xia 7*
1
Institute of Infection, Immunology and Tumor Microenvironment, Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Occupational Hazard
Identification and Control, Medical College, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, 2 Huarun WISCO
General Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, 3 CAS Key Laboratory
of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China,
4
Savaid Medical School, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 5 Beijing Key Laboratory
of Antimicrobial Resistance and Pathogen Genomics, Beijing, China, 6 Department of Pathogenic Biology, School of Basic
Medical Sciences, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China, 7 Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Affiliated Hangzhou
First People’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China
Healthcare workers at the frontline are facing a substantial risk of respiratory tract
infection during the COVID-19 outbreak due to an extremely stressful work schedule and
public health event. A well-established first-line defense on oropharyngeal microbiome
could be a promising strategy to protect individuals from respiratory tract infections
including COVID-19. The most thoroughly studied oropharyngeal probiotic product
which creates a stable upper respiratory tract microbiota capable of preventing upper
respiratory tract infections was chosen to evaluate the safety and efficacy on reducing
episodes of upper respiratory tract infections for COVID-19 healthcare workers. To
our knowledge to date, this is the very first study describing the beneficial effects of
oropharyngeal probiotic been administered by healthcare workers during the COVID-19
pandemic. In this randomized controlled trial, we provided the probiotics to frontline
medical staff who work in the hospitals in Wuhan and had been in close contact
with hospitalized COVID-19 patients for prophylactic use on a daily basis. Our finding
suggests that oropharyngeal probiotic administration significantly..
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