Probiotic Bacteria to Come to the Aid of Women Against Vaginal Infections

There’s a good news for women - researchers have found out that probiotic bacteria found in yoghurt could help fight vaginal infection. At times, it’s not easy to treat vaginal infections or vaginal thrush through antimicrobial medicines and the infection keeps coming back. So the scientists wanted a medicine that would be able to produce a substance to kill candida, the most common type of bacteria behind vaginal infections, and also grow further with the yeast infection.

"We've all heard of using natural yoghurt to manage vaginal thrush as an alternative to antimicrobial medicines, but we wanted to test whether the type of probiotic bacteria found in yoghurt could actually kill or restrict the growth of candida. The results in the lab have been very good and we have moved on to test our formulation in patients," lead researcher Dr M Cristina Verdenelli at Università di Camerino, Italy, said.

After testing five strains of lactobacilli, the team found out that combination of Lactobacillus rhamnosus IMC 501 and Lactobacillus paracasei IMC 502 exhibited the best result. It not only grew along with candida and produced hydrogen peroxide to kill yeast cells, it also was found fit for human cells.

The result, which can prove useful in the wake of microbial resistance, was published in Journal of Applied Microbiology.

Source-Medindia