Efficacy of Bifidobacterium longum, B. infantis and Lactobacillus acidophilus probiotics to prevent gut dysbiosis in preterm infants of 28+0–32+6 weeks of gestation: a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, multicentre trial: the PRIMAL Clinical Study protocol

Abstract

IntroductionThe healthy ‘eubiosis’ microbiome in infancy is regarded as the microbiome derived from term, vaginally delivered, antibiotic free, breastfed infants at 4–6 months. Dysbiosis is regarded as a deviation from a healthy state with reduced microbial diversity and deficient capacity to control drug-resistant organisms. Preterm infants are highly sensitive to early gut dysbiosis. Latter has been associated with sepsis and necrotising enterocolitis, but may also contribute to long-term health problems. Probiotics hold promise to reduce the risk for adverse short-term outcomes but the evidence from clinical trials remains inconclusive and none has directly assessed the effects of probiotics on the microbiome at high resolution.Methods and analysisA randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled study has been designed to assess the safety and efficacy of the probiotic mix of Bifidobacterium longum and infantis and Lactobacillus acidophilus in the prevention of gut dysbiosis in preterm infants between 28+0 and 32+6 weeks of gestation. The study is conducted in 18 German neonatal intensive care units. Between April 2018 and March 2020, 654 preterm infants of 28+0–32+6 weeks of gestation will be randomised in the first 48 hours of life to 28 days of once daily treatment with either probiotics or placebo. The efficacy endpoint is the prevention of gut dysbiosis at day 30 of life. A compound definition of gut dysbosis is used: (1) colonisation with multidrug-resistant organisms or gram-negative bacteria with high epidemic potential or (2) a significant deviation of the gut microbiota composition as compared with healthy term infants. Dysbiosis is determined by (1) conventional microbiological culture and (2) phylogenetic microbiome analysis by high-throughput 16S rRNA and metagenome sequencing. Persistence of dysbiosis will be assessed at 12-month follow-up visits. Side effects and adverse events related to the intervention will be recorded. Key secondary endpoint(s) are putative consequences of dysbiosis. A subgroup of infants will be thoroughly phenotyped for immune parameters using chipcytometry.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval was obtained in all participating sites. Results of the trial will be published in peer-review journals, at scientific meetings, on the website (www.primal-study.de) and via social media of parent organisations.Trial registration numberDRKS00013197; Pre-results.

Surgical necrotizing enterocolitis but not spontaneous intestinal perforation is associated with adverse neurological outcome at school age

“…Future longitudinal studies, specifically in cohorts with interventions on the preterm infants microbiome such as PRIMAL 31 , along with detailed mechanistic models are needed to disentangle the impact of gut dysbiosis and sustained inflammation on adverse neurodevelopmental outcome after prematurity. Cohort and definitions.…”

“…Logistic regression analysis and Mahalanobis distance matching were used to calculate a potential impact of NEC or SIP on outcome at six years with simultaneous controlling for several potential confounding factors. Mahalanobis' method is expected to be very successful in reducing bias in multivariate matching 31 and was used to compare NEC or SIP affected individuals with unaffected controls with similar risk profile.…”

Lactobacillus Acidophilus/Bifidobacterium Infantis Probiotics Are Beneficial to Extremely Low Gestational Age Infants Fed Human Milk

“…Our data demonstrates sepsis-preventive and growth-promoting effects exclusively in infants receiving human milk, supporting usage of human milk (including human milk from donors) in preterm infants whenever possible. Randomized, placebo-controlled trials as the PRIMAL clinical study [37] are pending to test hypothesis generating observational studies and to evaluate long-term effects of probiotics.…”

S100-Alarmins Are Essential Pilots of Postnatal Innate Immune Adaptation

“…The same holds true for S100A8/A9 levels in cord blood of preterm infants compared to term ones (8). Various other parameters like birth weight, gender, Apgar score, hormonal status of the neonate and the mother, maternal body mass index, and perinatal medications might also influence the early-life S100A8/A9 levels and are currently analyzed in the frame of a prospective multicenter clinical study (BMBF 01GL1746B, DRKS00013197) (72).…”