Abstract

Hepatitis C virus is a serious hepatic disease that could be developed into hepatocellular carcinoma. Previously, some probiotic strains showed a natural therapeutic activity against the fatty liver disorder. Therefore, it could make sense to evaluate the antiviral and antibacterial responses to probiotics as Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacteria spp. in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus. Twenty (20) patients with chronic hepatitis C (both gender in age 47± 5 years) were treated with capsule that contains probiotics (L. acidophilus and Bifidobacterium spp.). They administered one capsule per day for a month before HCV treatment; blood and urine samples were collected before and after the given treatment and they were processed for a quantitative estimation of HCV by PCR, identification of bacteria by VITEK2 system and 16S r RNA gene sequencing assay. Moreover, the estimation of antibacterial activity of probiotics by antibiotic sensitivity test, counts of leukocytes, CD3⁺ T cells and CD56⁺ natural killer cells by flowcytometry, DGAT1 by ELISA. Administration of probitics enhanced the treatment response rate to HCV treatments pegylated IFN-α and ribavirin by 25% and showed an antibacterial activity against five species of the most common infectious bacteria in chronic HCV patients which were identified by this study. CD3⁺ cells counts and CD56⁺ natural killer cells were increased. L. acidophilus and Bifidobacterium spp. can act as a supportive supplement with antiviral and antibacterial activities; we recommend Probiotics side by side with HCV treatments.

Key words: Hepatitis C virus, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacteria spp., CD3⁺, CD56⁺, pegylated IFN-α and ribavirin.