Shyamapada Mandal
Department of Zoology, University of Gour Banga, India.
Title: Role of probiotics and prebiotics in the management of gastrointestinal disorders from SARS-CoV-2 and bacterial secondary infections
Biography
Biography: Shyamapada Mandal
Abstract
The COVID-19, caused with the infection of SARS-CoV-2, has been a pandemic since December 2019. The virus, SARS-CoV-2, primarily infects lungs, and also causes dysbiosis of the gut microbiota, leading to the disruption of immune homeostasis (by invading gut epithelium using angiotensin-converting enzyme 2), thereby facilitating bacterial secondary infections causing gastrointestinal disorders. These events lead to a condition called blood-brain-barrier (BBB) dysfunction, which causes inflammation of the brain, and leads to severe and/or prolonged COVID-19. Prebiotics (including those derived from plant sources) —the components that enhance the viability and functionality of probiotics (in the gut),— act synbiotically thereby restoring the gut homeostasis and the BBB functionality as well, through gut-microbiota-brain axis. Thus, COVID-19 and the associated bacterial secondary infections causing gastrointestinal disorders might be prevented with probiotics as well as prebiotics supplementations