CUHK Develops Probiotic To Boost Covid Immunity

Researchers at Chinese University said on Thursday that they have developed a probiotic supplement which contains "good bacteria" that can potentially boost people's immunity against the coronavirus.

This comes after a study they conducted found Covid-19 patients lacked a series of good bacteria in their guts that could suppress attacks of viruses.

The team studied the microorganisms present in the stool collected from 15 coronavirus patients, and found that more than 20 types of good bacteria were missing.

Professor Siew Ng, one of the researchers who led the study, said a fine balance between good and bad bacteria in our guts is important for regulating immunity.

"We found that they actually have missing good bacteria in the gut, which healthy people are supposed to have, and they also have increase in many – what we call pathogens – so these are bad bacteria," Ng said.

"So the missing bacteria that are good are suppose to help with our immunity, and because the missing bacteria we believe is likely to put them susceptible to having the infections, and also more severe infections of Covid-19."

The research team later expanded their study to include 150 coronavirus patients and 1,500 healthy individuals.

They said based on the data, they have developed a probiotic formula which can be used as a supplement to restore the balance of good and bad bacteria in people’s guts and boost their immunity.

Researchers hope the supplement could be available to the public for sale in a few months.