Probiotics are defined as live organisms, which confer benefits to the host. Their efficiency was demonstrated for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, respiratory infections, and allergic symptoms, but their use is mostly limited to bacterial and viral diseases. During the last decade, probiotics as means for the control of parasite infections were reported covering mainly intestinal diseases but also some nongut infections, that are all of human and veterinary importance. In most cases, evidence for a beneficial effect was obtained by studies using animal models. In a few cases, cellular interactions between probiotics and pathogens or relevant host cells were also investigated using in vitro culture systems. However, molecular mechanisms mediating the beneficial effects are as yet poorly understood. These studies indicate that probiotics might indeed provide a strain-specific protection against parasites, probably through multiple mechanisms. But more unravelling studies are needed to justify probiotic utilisation in therapeutics. 1. Introduction Probiotics have been defined by WHO as “live organisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit to the host” (http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/fs_management/probiotics2/en/). Importantly, a general probiotic statement on a genus or a species cannot be established, as two closely related strains can induce inverse effects. Therefore, a probiotic must always be fully characterised at a strain level [1]. A good probiotic strain should confer a beneficial property (immune stimulation, protection against pathogens, metabolism, etc), be nonpathogenic, resistant to low pH and acids, thereby persisting in the intestine, and able to adhere to the gut epithelium [2]. About 50 strains corresponding to 26 species fulfil these criteria. Most probiotic organisms are gram positive bacteria, isolated from the human gut microflora or various dairy products such as curd, lassi, and kulfi. However, probiotic beneficial effects have been more often demonstrated in model animals than by direct clinical evidences and depend largely on the dose ingested. Dose of at least five billion colony forming units per day for at least 5 days is recommended [2]. This minimum dose takes into account the survival capacity of the ingested probiotics in the gastrointestinal tract, where they are in competition with the resident bacteria [3]. Three main benefits are reported (Figure 1). Figure 1: Schematic representation of the different routes by which probiotics may control a pathogen. (1) Probiotics
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