Modification of Immunological Parameters Oxidative Stress Markers Mood Symptoms and Well-Being Status in CFS after Probiotic Intake, 2019, Venturini

[Dolphin]

Free full text:
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2019/1684198/

Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity
Volume 2019, Article ID 1684198, 10 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/1684198

Research Article
Modification of Immunological Parameters, Oxidative Stress Markers, Mood Symptoms, and Well-Being Status in CFS Patients after Probiotic Intake: Observations from a Pilot Study
Letizia Venturini,1 Sara Bacchi,2 Enrica Capelli,2 Lorenzo Lorusso,3 Giovanni Ricevuti,1 and Chiara Cusa1

1Department of Internal Medicine and Therapeutics, Cellular Pathophysiology and Clinical immunology Laboratory, University of Pavia, 27100, Italy

2Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100, Italy
3U.O: Neurology, A.S.S.T. San Leopoldo Mandic Hospital of Merate, 23807, Italy

Correspondence should be addressed to Letizia Venturini; letizia.venturini@unipv.it

Received 19 July 2019; Revised 30 September 2019; Accepted 17 October 2019; Published 23 November 2019

Guest Editor: Maria Luca

Abstract

The present study discusses about the effects of a combination of probiotics able to stimulate the immune system of patients affected by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME).

To this purpose, patients diagnosed according to Fukuda’s criteria and treated with probiotics were analyzed by means of clinical and laboratory evaluations, before and after probiotic administrations.

Probiotics were selected considering the possible pathogenic mechanisms of ME/CFS syndrome, which has been associated with an impaired immune response, dysregulation of Th1/Th2 ratio, and high oxidative stress with exhaustion of antioxidant reserve due to severe mitochondrial dysfunction.

Immune and oxidative dysfunction could be related with the gastrointestinal (GI) chronic low-grade inflammation in the lamina propria and intestinal mucosal surface associated with dysbiosis, leaky gut, bacterial translocation, and immune and oxidative dysfunction.

Literature data demonstrate that bacterial species are able to modulate the functions of the immune and oxidative systems and that the administration of some probiotics can improve mucosal barrier function, modulating the release of proinflammatory cytokines, in CFS/ME patients.

This study represents a preliminary investigation to verifying the safety and efficacy of a certain combination of probiotics in CFS/ME patients.

The results suggest that probiotics can modify the well-being status as well as inflammatory and oxidative indexes in CFS/ME patients.

No adverse effects were observed except for one patient, which displayed a flare-up of symptoms, although all inflammatory parameters (i.e., cytokines, fecal calprotectin, ESR, and immunoglobulins) were reduced after probiotic intake.

The reactivation of fatigue symptoms in this patient, whose clinical history reported the onset of CFS/ME following mononucleosis, could be related to an abnormal stimulation of the immune system as suggested by a recent study describing an exaggerated immune activation associated with chronic fatigue.

 

[Hutan]

Tl:dr. Don't waste your time on this paper. Small sample size, high dropouts, not at all clear what they actually did.

What a frustrating paper. It's not until the Results section that we find that there were only 13 ME/CFS patients in the study. And of those 13, 4 didn't complete the 8-week course. And the study was carried out over 4 years. It's not until the last paragraph of the conclusion that we learn about the dosage of the probiotics, specifically, the dosage was 'appropriate'. That's as specific as it gets. and yet there is copious waffle about how wonderful probiotics are and speculation on how they might be helping people with ME/CFS.

In the context of a low sample size, the data reported here show that treatment with probiotics can be viable and safe. The clinical laboratory data obtained are representative of a population of patients with CFS/ME treated with a combination of probiotic microorganisms administered at an appropriate dosage and chosen according to their specific therapeutic targets.

I ended up only skimming bits of this paper, I admit. But the sections that should have been telling us what probiotics patients were given are vague. There were 4 different collections of probiotics; I don't know if all the patients got all four. I suspect not.

It is reported that one of the patients (i.e. 8% of the intention to treat sample) became significantly worse. Bearing in mind that another 30% of the 13 patients pulled out of the 8 week study (for reasons that aren't explained), it seems a bit of a reach to conclude that treatment with probiotics is safe.

I want to be grateful to researchers looking into treatments of ME/CFS, I really do. But papers like this make me despair. How can published papers be so bad? I could go on with things like not making clear what changes were significant and what changes weren't, use of the Chadler (sic) scale... but really, its not worth it.

The authors do not declare any conflicts of interest. Bromatech s.r.l. was acknowledged for the supply of the probiotics.

Bromatech has been engaged for more than 25 years in the study and development of targeted food supplements based on specific strains of lactic acid bacteria, antioxidants and essential fatty acids which are able to interact with the precious heritage of the human microbiota.

 

[Michelle]

Tl:dr. Don't waste your time on this paper. Small sample size, high dropouts, not at all clear what they actually did.

What a frustrating paper. It's not until the Results section that we find that there were only 13 ME/CFS patients in the study.

Yeah, I quit trying to read this paper when I couldn't see what the sample size was within the first few paragraphs. I couldn't figure out if it was me or just that shitty a paper. Thanks for letting me know it wasn't me.