Antiviral activity of fermented foods and their probiotics bacteria towards respiratory and alimentary tracts viruses

Belal J Muhialdin; Norhasnida Zawawi; Ahmad Faizal Abdull Razis; Jamilah Bakar; Mohammad Zarei

doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2021.108140

Antiviral activity of fermented foods and their probiotics bacteria towards respiratory and alimentary tracts viruses

Food Control. 2021 Sep:127:108140. doi: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2021.108140. Epub 2021 Apr 11.

Authors

Belal J Muhialdin^{1

2}, Norhasnida Zawawi^{1

3}, Ahmad Faizal Abdull Razis^{1

3}, Jamilah Bakar⁴, Mohammad Zarei⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Food Science, Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM, Selangor, Malaysia.
² Halal Products Research Institute, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM, Selangor, Malaysia.
³ Natural Medicines and Product Research Laboratory, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM, Selangor, Malaysia.
⁴ Department of Food Technology, Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM, Selangor, Malaysia.
⁵ Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Industrial Technology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, 40450, Selangor, Malaysia.

Abstract

The recent COVID-19, a viral outbreak calls for a high demand for non-conventional antiviral agents that can reduce the risk of infections and promote fast recovery. Fermented foods and their probiotics bacteria have recently received increasing interest due to the reported potential of high antiviral activity. Several probiotics strains demonstrated broad range of antiviral activities and different mechanisms of action. This article will review the diversity, health benefits, interaction with immune system and antiviral activity of fermented foods and their probiotics bacteria. In addition, the mechanisms of action will be reviewed to determine the broad range potential antiviral activity against the respiratory and alimentary tracts viruses. The probiotics bacteria and bioactive compounds in fermented foods demonstrated antiviral activities against respiratory and alimentary tracts viruses. The mechanism of action was reported to be due to the stimulation of the immune system function via enhancing natural killers cell toxicity, enhance the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and increasing the cytotoxic of T lymphocytes (CD3⁺, CD16⁺, CD56⁺). However, further studies are highly recommended to determine the potential antiviral activity for traditional fermented foods.

Keywords: Antiviral; Fermented foods; Immune system; Probiotics; Viruses.

Publication types

Review