Vaccines May Be Less Effective With Probiotics in Pregnant Women, Infants

Probiotics are likely associated with improved vaccine efficacy and duration of protection among most vaccine recipients, according to a recent systematic review. However, probiotics may actually have the opposite effect for pregnant mothers and their infants.

For their review, the researchers identified and evaluated 3812 participants enrolled in 26 studies that had assessed whether 40 different probiotic strains had an effect on participants’ responses to 17 different vaccines.
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Ultimately, approximately half of the studies had demonstrated a beneficial effect of probiotics, with the strongest benefits observed for oral vaccinations and for parenteral influenza vaccination. However, 1 study that had analyzed the effect of probiotics in pregnant women had reported lower vaccine responses in their infants.

The researchers noted that there was substantial variation between studies in the choice of probiotic, strain, dose, viability, purity, and duration and timing of administration.

“The studies in our review suggest that probiotics offer a relatively cheap intervention to improve vaccine efficacy and duration of protection,” the researchers concluded. “Future studies should focus on establishing optimal strains, doses, and timing of administration in relation to vaccination.”

—Christina Vogt

References:

Zimmermann P, Curtis N. The influence of probiotics on vaccine responses – a systematic review. Vaccine. 2018;36(2):207-213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2017.08.069.