Role of Probiotics in Prophylaxis of Helicobacter pylori Infection

Helicobacter pylori, a pathogenic bacterium, has been known to be the root cause of numerous gastrointestinal disorders. In patients showing symptoms of its infection, antibiotic therapy is a likely treatment. However, the high cost of antibiotic therapy, associated antibiotic resistance along with other adverse effects has led to the use of probiotics for Helicobacter pylori treatment. In recent times, probiotics have played an essential role as complementary prophylaxis for gastrointestinal diseases, thus minimizing antibiotics' usage and their side effects. Probiotics are live microbial agents that exude beneficial effects on their hosts when administered in the proper dosage. The growth of the organism has been reported to be inhibited to a great extent by probiotics and research employing animal models has shown a significant reduction in H. pylori-associated gastric inflammation. In human clinical trials, it has been observed that treatment with probiotics alleviated gastritis symptoms caused by H. pylori and reduced colonization of the organism. As expected, complete eradication of H. pylori infection has not yet been reported by the administration of probiotics alone. Complement treatments using probiotics have shown to benefit infected individuals by decreasing the harmful effects of H. pylori eradication treatment using antibiotics. Long-term administration of probiotics might have favourable outcomes in H. pylori infection especially by decreasing the risk of development of diseases caused by increased levels of gastric inflammation. One such chronic condition is gastric ulcer which occurs due to considerable damage to the mucosal barrier by H. pylori colonization. This review provides a brief description of the promising role of probiotics as a complementary treatment to control H. pylori infection and consequently the management of various gastrointestinal disorders among populations with a special focus on gastric ulcer.