Probiotics is this the reason of worsening Cryptosporidiosis in mice.

Being administered a probiotic, researchers have found that infection with intestinal parasite Cryptosporidium parvum is worsened in mice.

Cryptosporidiosis is one of the main cause of diarrhea in most of the developing and under developing countries on an estimate of over 48000 people were killed in 2016. Doctors and researchers have not yet found any drug that can treat the infection and any vaccine that can prevent it.

Compared to control mice, those that were given the probiotic had altered gut micro flora and more parasites in their feces, and their intestinal micro flora were different from those of the control mice.

Researchers and doctors assumed that healthy microbiome could prevent or reduce the severity of the infection, but contrary to their expectational assumptions, they came to notice that consumption of commercially available probiotic actually increased the severity of the infection.

                            

Antibiotics, which often disturb or even use up and empty all the normal intestinal micro flora, thus can render individuals more vulnerable to infection precisely related to intestine. On the other hand, researches posited that a healthy balance of microflora can prevent or reduce severity of cryptosporidiosis in a mouse model.

“Mitigating the diseases severity might be adequate to prevent diarrhea, or lessen the duration, and empower the immunes system so to naturally control the infection”

Although the outcome of the study was quite contrary to their hypothesis, the fact that cryptosporidium growth can be affected by diet has meant Widmer and colleagues now think that it may still be possible to design probiotics that will mitigate the infection.

Widmer says that the aim now is to find a find a mechanistic link between microflora and cryptosporidium proliferation and ultimately design a simple nutritional supplement that helps the body fight the infection.

“Identifying specific mechanisms that amend pathogen virulence in response to diet may enhance the development of simple pre- or probiotics capable of modifying the composition of the microbiota to lower the severity of cryptosporidiosis.”

Story Source: https://goo.gl/nemd3P

By Anicia Clark

05-09-2018