Probiotics as Dietary Supplements for Eradication of Helicobacter pylori Infection in Children: A Role Beyond Infection.
For decades, treatment of infectious diseases has been a strong focus of interest, for both researchers and healthcare providers. Chronic infection withHelicobacter pylori(H. pylori) has been reported to be associated with several diseases, such as ulcer disease, gastric adenocarcinoma and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma. Infection withH. pyloriis generally acquired during childhood and can persist indefinitely, if not treated systematically. Unfortunately, although several strategies have shown high efficacy results, treatment of theH. pyloriinfection fails in about 25%-30% of infected children. One main reason for this is due to the extensive use of antibiotics, which has created antibiotic resistance, associated with other adverse effects as well. Therefore, it is crucial to find alternative strategies to combat this resistance, and increase treatment efficacy results. Probiotics, which are live microorganisms that are orally administrated, have been found to be a useful regimen in the treatment of theH. pyloriinfection in children. Their use as a dietary supplement alone, or in combination with antibiotics, resulted in reduced side effects and higher efficacy rates of theH. pyloriinfection in children. Some probiotics can be considered an adjunctive treatment, especially when eradication of theH. pyloriinfection fails during initial treatment, and to help reduce adverse effects. However, the evidence of the beneficial role of probiotics is limited due to the small number of clinical trials that have been conducted and heterogeneity across studies in strains and dosage. Additionally, no investigations have been carried out in asymptomatic children. Therefore, large well-conducted studies are needed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of probiotics as an adjuvant therapy of theH. pyloriinfection.
Department of Natural Drugs, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Palackého tř. 1946/1, 612 42 Brno, Czech Republic. sherif.hassan@seznam.cz.
Sherif T S
ST
Hassan
Museum of the Brno Region, Museum of Literature in Moravia, Porta Coeli 1001, 66602 Předklášteří, Czech Republic. sudomova@post.cz.
Miroslava
M
Šudomová
Helicobacter pylori infection; children; dietary supplements; eradication treatment; probiotics