Antiviral Properties of Probiotic Compounds

Example 10

CFSM was initially applied to virus-free cell cultures to determine the concentration of CFSM that could be used on FRhK cells without itself causing any detrimental effects on the cells. In FIGS. 17A and 17B, it can be seen that 2% CFSM is a desirable amount to use and this amount was used for subsequent experiments.

Next, viral particles in infected RAW 264.7 cells and media in the presence of probiotic CFSM were quantified. Mouse macrophage RAW 264.7 cells were infected with MNV-1 at 1×10⁶ cells with 3.5×10⁶ PFU. After RNA extraction from cells and media (supernatant), quantification of MNV-1 particles was done by a 2-step real-time PCR. The analysis showed a statistical difference (t-test, p<0.05) between the amounts of viral particles present in the media (FIG. 18, panel B) compared to untreated infected cells. For the number of viral particles inside the cells, only Lactococcus lactis and Lactobacillus reuteri (FIG. 18, panel A), showed a statistical difference compared to infected cells, however, Lactobacillus acidophilus La-5 showed a trend towards statistical significance. These results show that the propagation of MNV-1 might be negatively affected by the presence of bioactive compounds produced by probiotic strains.