Hand-in-Hand: The Probiotic and Vaccine Love Story You Never Expected

With the ongoing pandemic, the latest hullabaloo has risen with respect to what works best with, or rather, what helps improve the humble vaccination. The Probiotic Experts are here to guide you towards the most effective measures.

We won’t send yet another blog your way that tells you to take the vaccine (but here’s a quick reminder anyway — please do!) While you research which vaccine you should take, and look for hacks to register on the portal (count your small wins), here’s what we recommend you also think about — how you can get your body better prepared for the vaccine.

If we each got a rupee every time we heard or read the word “immunity”, we’d probably have enough to fund the vaccine drive across the country! But it still is the most important thing we have to think about before getting the jab.

70% of your body’s immunity is in the gut! And how can you get your gut to function optimally? We’re a probiotics company so you guessed right — probiotics!

What can probiotics do in addition to the other immune enhancers you are currently taking, you ask? Once you get a shot of the vaccine, it is up to your immune system to dictate how it will react to it, and what level of anti-bodies it should produce. Research has suggested that probiotics can possibly help improve vaccine efficacy, and can modulate the immune system towards a more favourable response.

In 1995, it was first exhibited that giving infants a single dose of Lactobacillus casei GG just before oral administration of the rotavirus vaccine followed by a 5 day probiotic or placebo treatment, caused higher serum antibody and anti-viral titres on day 8. (1)

Similarly in another study performed by De Vrese et al. in a cohort of young adult volunteers, involving the administration of probiotics (namely, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG or L. acidophilus CRL431) a week before oral polio vaccinations; it was found that probiotics had induced significantly higher levels of neutralizing antibodies and higher levels of anti-polio serum IgG and IgA. (2)

How is this exactly working?

No one knows for sure — to keep it safe. But putative mechanisms by which probiotics could enhance systemic immune response could possibly be the activation of dendritic cells in the Peyer’s patches, which leads to the release of cytokines into circulation. It is also possible that probiotic fragments could enter the bloodstream and have a direct (but weak) adjuvant effect at a distant lymph node. (3)

An interesting study carried out by Kukkonen et al., aimed at looking into the efficacy of parenteral vaccines and the effect of probiotic administration on them. The study involved a combination of four different bacteria (L. rhamnosus GG, L. rhamnosus LC705, Bifidobacterium breve Bbi99 and Propionibacterium freudenreicherii ssp. Shermanii) and a prebiotic given to mothers pre-term and their children 6 months after birth. (4) The children received routine diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) vaccines at 3, 4 and 5 months and the Hemophilus influenza type b (Hib) vaccine at 4 months and serum antibodies were measured. Although no effect was seen with DTP, a significantly higher protective Hib titre was observed in children receiving the complex mixture.

Cue fanfare — we would like to introduce you to a well-researched and tested product we have called Lactogut. Lactogut has the right strains of bacteria that your gut needs to carry out its function well.

We would also like to tell you about enKor-D — a probiotic that has the right strains of bacteria for your oral cavity. Along with addressing issues like cold, cough, and sore throat (definitely the wrong time to come down with any of these issues), enKor-D also acts as your first line of defence, giving your mouth the right kind of immunity it needs to fight away incoming pathogens.

Our probiotic experts recommend you take these two probiotics for fifteen days before your first jab and continue to take them fifteen days after.

Please note — do not delay taking the vaccine to complete your probiotic doses. You can continue to support your immune system by taking probiotics after.

TL, DR:

- Probiotics help build your body’s immunity.

- Take enKor-D for your oral cavity, and Lactogut for your gut.

- Take them both for fifteen days before your jab, and for fifteen days after.

- Remember: do not delay taking the vaccine if you get a chance to.

References

1. Isolauri, E, Joensuu, J, Suomalainen, H et al. (1995) Improved immunogenicity of oral D x RRV reassortant rotavirus vaccine by Lactobacillus casei GG. Vaccine 13, 310–312
2. 2. De Vrese, M, Rautenberg, P, Laue, C et al. (2005) Probiotic bacteria stimulate virus-specific neutralizing antibodies following a booster polio vaccination. Eur J Nutr 44, 406–413.
3. 3. MacDonald, T., & Bell, I. (2010). Probiotics and the immune response to vaccines. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 69(3), 442–446.
4. 4. Kukkonen, K, Nieminen, T, Poussa, T et al. (2006) Effect of probiotics on vaccine antibody responses in infancy — a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind trial. Pediatr Allergy Immunol 17, 416–421