Can probiotics restore antibiotic-perturbed microbiota?

Antibiotics play a major role in bacterial infection treatment; however, their overuse disrupts commensal microbiota. Although probiotics can effectively alleviate antibiotic-associated diarrhea, they do not restore the gut microbiota to its pre-antibiotic state. In the future, more studies are required to understand whether any specific probiotic preparation could effectively restore gut microbiome diversity and composition after antibiotic use.

Study: Antibiotic-perturbed microbiota and the role of probiotics . Image Credit: New Africa/Shutterstock.com Recently, scientists explored the available literature to evaluate the efficacy of probiotics in preventing gut microbial disruption and their capacity to restore it after antibiotic treatment.

This review is available in Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology . The benefits of antibiotics and their effect on human gut microbiota According to the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance Project, there has been an approximately 46% increase in antibiotic consumption in the last two decades. However, the antibiotic consumption rate varies significantly across regions and income levels.

This observation highlights the need for targeted strategies to manage antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The primary benefit of antibiotic use is managing severe acute bacterial infections. Besides the benefits, some individuals develop severe allergic reactions (e.

g., anaphylaxis) to certain antibiotics, including penicillin. Antibiotics .