The use of probiotics and prebiotics in decolonizing pathogenic bacteria from the gut; a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical outcomes

ABSTRACT

Repeated exposure to antibiotics and changes in the diet and environment shift the gut microbial diversity and composition, making the host susceptible to pathogenic infection. The emergence and ongoing spread of AMR pathogens is a challenging public health issue. Recent evidence showed that probiotics and prebiotics may play a role in decolonizing drug-resistant pathogens by enhancing the colonization resistance in the gut. This review aims to analyze available evidence from human-controlled trials to determine the effect size of probiotic interventions in decolonizing AMR pathogenic bacteria from the gut. We further studied the effects of prebiotics in human and animal studies. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, and CINAHL were used to collect articles. The random-effects model meta-analysis was used to pool the data. GRADE Pro and Cochrane collaboration tools were used to assess the bias and quality of evidence. Out of 1395 citations, 29 RCTs were eligible, involving 2871 subjects who underwent either probiotics or placebo treatment to decolonize AMR pathogens. The persistence of pathogenic bacteria after treatment was 22%(probiotics) and 30.8%(placebo). The pooled odds ratio was 0.59(95% CI:0.43–0.81), favoring probiotics with moderate certainty (p = 0.0001) and low heterogeneity (I² = 49.2%, p = 0.0001). The funnel plot showed no asymmetry in the study distribution (Kendall’sTau = −1.06, p = 0.445). In subgroup, C. difficile showed the highest decolonization (82.4%) in probiotics group. Lactobacillus-based probiotics and Saccharomyces boulardii decolonize 71% and 77% of pathogens effectively. The types of probiotics (p < 0.018) and pathogens (p < 0.02) significantly moderate the outcome of decolonization, whereas the dosages and regions of the studies were insignificant (p < 0.05). Prebiotics reduced the pathogens from 30% to 80% of initial challenges. Moderate certainty of evidence suggests that probiotics and prebiotics may decolonize pathogens through modulation of gut diversity. However, more clinical outcomes are required on particular strains to confirm the decolonization of the pathogens. Protocol registration: PROSPERO (ID = CRD42021276045).

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Probiotics
• prebiotics
• gut microbiota
• alpha diversity
• decolonization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, MI; methodology, NR and NB; writing – original draft preparation, NR, NB, MT, PD; writing – Review and editing, MI, MCFT, SHW; supervision, MI; project administration. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2024.2356279

Additional information

Funding

We thank the Health and Medical Research Fund, Food and Health Bureau, HKSAR for the support (Project no. HMRF 18170082 and CID_CUHK_C, both PI to MI). The funding body was not involved in the study’s design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation of data or in writing the manuscript.