METHODS AND RESULTS: Lactic acid bacteria strains were isolated and examined for acid tolerance, bile salt resistance and hypocholesterolemic properties. Among the isolates, Lactobacillus plantarum TAR4 showed the highest cholesterol reduction ability (48·01%). The focus in the in vivo trial was to elucidate the cholesterol balance from findings pertaining to serum cholesterol reduction in rat model fed with high fat diet via oral administration. Rats fed with high-cholesterol diet supplemented with Lact. plantarum TAR4 showed significant reduction in serum total cholesterol (29·55%), serum triglyceride (45·31%) and liver triglyceride (23·44%) as compared to high-cholesterol diet (HCD) group. There was a significant increment in faecal triglyceride (45·83%) and faecal total bile acid (384·95%) as compared to HCD group.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings showed that probiotic Lact. plantarum TAR4 supplementation reduced the absorption of bile acids for enterohepatic recycling and increased the catabolism of cholesterol to bile acids and not by suppressing the rate of cholesterol synthesis.
SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF STUDY: Probiotic supplements could provide a new nonpharmacological alternative to reduce cardiovascular risk factors.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted in Hospital Kepala Batas (HKB), a district hospital in Penang State, Malaysia, which was the designated regional COVID hospital during the pandemic. It was a retrospective observational study, where children who were admitted from November 2020 to March 2021, and attended follow-up clinics from Jan 2021 to May 2021, were recruited.
RESULTS: This study comprised 90 subjects, from 3 months old to 12 years old, mean of 6.5 years old. When comparing asymptomatic and symptomatic children, children with comorbidities were more likely to be symptomatic with a pvalue of 0.045 using the Pearson Chi-square test. All our patients' symptoms resolved upon discharge. During followup at 2-4 months after COVID-19 infection, all children were reported as back to their usual selves. Fifteen patients had recurrent symptoms. Most of their symptoms pointed towards an acute infection. One patient had two episodes of illness, while the rest had one. The most common symptoms were cough, fever and runny nose. The average duration of illness of these 16 episodes was 4.5 days with a standard deviation of 2.48. None of these symptoms lasted more than seven days. None of them required hospital admission. None of them had recurrent COVID-19 infections. Tweleve out of 72 children who had been going to school stopped physical school after COVID-19 infection. Our findings differed from other studies. These could be due to the limitations that we faced.
CONCLUSION: Most children who contracted COVID-19 infection recovered fully after acute infection, and most of them recovered fully without long-term sequelae.