Table 1.

Effects of probiotics and/or prebiotics on human infectious diseases

Part of body	Disease	Probiotic	Prebiotica	Dose	Result	Reference
Skin	Atopic dermatitis	B. breve M-16V	GOS/FOS mixture	- Ninety infants - Aged 0–7 months - Formula-fed: 1.3 × 109 CFU/100 mL GOS/FOS (0.8 mg/100 mL) - 12 months	- Synbiotic mixture has no beneficial effect on atopic dermatitis severity in infants. - Synbiotic mixture successfully modulates their intestinal microbiota.	van der Aa et al. (2010)
		L. salivarius	FOS	- Sixty children aged 2–14 years - Capsules: two daily - 8 weeks	- A synbiotic combination of L. salivarius plus FOS is superior to the prebiotic alone for treating moderate to severe childhood atopic dermatitis.	Wu et al. (2012)
		Combination of: B. bifidum, L. acidophilus, L. casei, L. salivarius	–	- Forty children aged 1–13 years - Probiotic bags 2 × 109 CFU - Two bags daily - 8 weeks	- Probiotic combination effectively reduced the SCORAD in the treatment of atopic dermatitis.	Yeşilova et al. (2012)
	Acne	L. acidophilus L. delbrueckii sub. bulgaricus B. bifidum	–	- Female - Aged 18–35 years - Two probiotics capsules per day: one in the morning and one in the evening. - Group A: Only probiotic supplementation (two per day). - Group B: Only minocycline (antibiotic) supplementation. - Group C: Treated with both probiotic and minocycline. This group also takes the probiotic at least 2 h after their minocycline dosage.	- Probiotics may be considered a therapeutic option or adjunct for acne vulgaris by providing a synergistic anti-inflammatory effect with systemic antibiotics.	Jung et al. (2013)
			GMH	- Female volunteers - Aged 18–39 years - Spray formulation of GMH at 5% (w/v).	- Data indicate that the GMH could be used as a prophylactic or novel topical therapeutic product for acne vulgaris and to improve skin health more generally.	Bateni et al. (2013)
Female urogenital tract	Urinary tract infection	L. crispatus CTV-05	–	- Women - Aged 18–40 - Vaginal suppositories - Once daily for 5 days	- Treatment with Lactin-V was associated with reduced recurrent urinary tract infections.	Stapleton et al. (2011)
Female urogenital tract	Urinary tract infection	L. rhamnosus GR-1 L. reuteri RC-14	–	- Postmenopausal women - 12 months - Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, 480 mg, once daily - Oral probiotic capsules with 1 × 109CFU, twice daily.	- L. rhamnosus GR-1 and L. reuteri RC-14 do not meet the noninferiority criteria in the prevention of urinary tract infections compared with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. - Lactobacilli do not increase antibiotic resistance.	Beerepoot et al. (2012)
Respiratory tract	Respiratory tract infections	L. rhamnosus LGG® B. animalis ssp. lactis BB-12®	–	- College students - Probiotic powder with 1 billion CFU of each, stick of 5 g - 12 weeks	- LGG® and BB-12® may be beneficial among college students with upper respiratory infections for mitigating reductions in health-related quality of life.	Smith et al. (2013)
		L. acidophilus spp., L. delbrueckii sub. bulgaricus, B. bifidum, S. salivarius thermophilus	–	- Girl swimmers - Aged 13.8 ± 1.8 years - Probiotic yogurt (400 mL, 4 × 1010 CFU/mL) or normal yogurt - Daily for 8 weeks.	- A reduction in the number of episodes of respiratory infections and duration of some symptoms, such as dyspnea and ear pain, were observed.	Salarkia et al. (2013)
		B. animalis subsp lactis, L. rhamnosus	–	- Danish infants - Sachets with 1 × 109 CFU of each probiotic - Aged 8–14 months - For a 6-month period	- Daily administration of a combination of B. animalis subsp lactis and L. rhamnosus for 6 months did not reduce the number of days absent from child care in healthy infants at the time of enrollment in child care.	Laursen et al. (2017)
	Virus-associated respiratory tract infections	L. rhamnosus GG ATCC 53103	GOS/polydextrose (1:1)	- Preterm infants - Oral probiotic-prebiotic mixture - Probiotic dose: 1 × 109 CFU/day for 1 to 30 days and 2 × 109 CFU/day for 31 to 60 days. - Prebiotic dose: 1 × 3600 mg/day for 1 to 30 days and 2 × 600 mg/day for 31 to 60 day.	- Lower incidence of respiratory tract infections in infants receiving prebiotics or L. rhamnosus GG compared with those receiving a placebo.	Luoto et al. (2014)

^aGOS, galactooligosaccharides; FOS, fructooligosaccharides; GMH, glucomannan hydrolysates