Reviews
Prebiotics and sepsis in infants:
An updated systematic review and meta-analysis
Yuaja Gin", Linhui Pan
Anstey Department Tarr spl ila to Ganga Mel Vest, Nang, Che
* env Care Unt Liou Pope’ Hosp Alatedo Guang Medial Urversty,China
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Introduction
Infants are prone to sepsis, especially those with lower
birth weight, lower gestational age, asphyxia, and those
administered antibiotics." In addition, infants can ea:
ily contract infections, such as necrotizing enterocolitis,
which can lead to sepsis and alterations in laboratory
parameters.* Changes in non-cytotoxic T lymphocytes
could also occur after the onset of sepsis due to the sup-
pression of immune function in infants.* Furthermore,
sepsis in infants may result in warm shock physiology
accompanied by vasodilation, which could contribute
to seplic shock and increase the mortality rate Theze-
fore, understanding the relationship between infants and
sepsis is critical
‘The therapeutic options for treating sepsis in infants
are limited, Mechanical ventilation and empirical anti-
biotics have been reported to be associated with higher
sepsis frequency in infants~* Thus, clinicians may need
to establish other therapeutic options for such patients,
and one possible alternative is prebiotics. The current evi-
dence on the mechanisms of prebiotics in immune fanc-
tion mostly comes from animal studies, which provide
clues about how to relieve sepsis in infants through im-
munomodulatory actions.
Prebiotics could promote the growth of beneficial bacte-
ria, enhance immune-stimulatory processes, and increase
the expression of immunomodulatory functions with anti-
oxidant characteristics” * Furthermore, they may enhance
intestinal trophic effects and immune system maturation,"
Oligosaccharides from human breast milk are prebiotics
that have been shown to modulate immune responses,"
which is consistent with the latest studies on the mecha-
nisms of prebiotc effects on immunomodulatory function,
Inaddition, prebiotics seem to have no significant side ef-
fects and may help to avoid mechanical ventilation use
in infants. Therefore, they have the potential to decrease
sepsis risk in such patients >
Objectives
Sepsisis critical situation in clinical practice for which
antibiotic therapy is a routine option. However, adverse
effects of antibiotics have to be considered in pediatric
patients, This meta-analysis aimed to provide an update
fon the effects of prebiotic use in sepsis events in infants.
Based on the literature, we hypothesized that prebiotics
would decrease the risk of sepsis. We included randomized
controlled trials (RCTS) with placebo controls (no admin-
istration of prebiotics) due to the lower risk of bias in such
studies, The results could provide valuable information
fon how to manage infants.
Methods
Literature database
and enrollment criteria
‘Wesearched the literature using the following keywords:
“prebiatic," “versus,” “placebo,” “compatison, “short-chain
salacto-oligosaccharides,” “long-chain fructo-oligosac-
charides,"“pectin-derived acidic oligosaccharides," “acidic
oligosaccharides,” “sepsis” “neonate,” "infant," “septic,”
“oligosaccharides,” “fructans,” “oligofructose,” “inulin,
“randomized,” “clinical,” “controlled,” “trials “treatment,”
“therapy,” “efficacy,” and “outcome” We searched the Sci-
enceDirect, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and the Co-
crane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases for
relevant prospective RCT studies published before October
2022, The inclusion criteria were: 1. Studies comparing
prebiotics with placebo in infants; 2, Those with informa
tion on the sepsis characteristics, including the occurrence
and rales; 3. Reports published in journals in the Science
Citation Index Database written in English; and 4, RCTs
with a placebo-controlled design.
Assessment of study quality
and data collection
‘We conducted the meta-analysis in accordance with,
the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews and Inter-
ventions! and the Preferred Reporting Items for System-
atic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.'*
Data collected from the studies included sepsis events,
the number of infants who experienced such events after
receiving prebiotics or a placebo, the odds ratio (OR), and
the standard error (SE).
Data collection and assessment
‘Two reviewers screened abstracts and collections of ar
ticles and extracted data on sepsis outcomes from the texts,
tables and figures. The risk of bias was then assessed ac-
cording to the following criteria: 1. Bias arising from
the randomization process; 2, Bias due to deviations from
intended interventions; 3. Bias due to missing outcome
data; 4. Bias in the measurement of the outcomes, and
5, Bias in the selection of the reported results. The re
viewers showed strong agreement in their assessments
(kappa = 0.9), Ultimately, the final results were reviewed
by all authors
Meta-analysis and statistical analysis
‘Wegenerated pooled estimates of the relative risks (RRs)
and ORs for sepsis events and prebiotic treatments and
used the Cochrane Collaboration Review Manager Soft-
ware Packsge RevMan v, 54 (Cochrane Collaboration,
Copenhagen, Denmark) to perform the meta-analyses.vin es. 208
"The Mantel-Haenszel method was used to calculate RR,
with DerSimonian and Laird’s random effects models
and summary statisties also produced. The risk estimates
of individual studies were combined using the variance-
‘weighted averages in the random effects model
‘The group that received prebiotic treatments and the con:
‘trol group were compared to determine whether prebiotics
decreased the rate of sepsis events. The x? tests were per-
formed, and the statistic was used to examine the hetero-
geneity between studies. According o the Cochrane Hand
book for Systematic Reviews and Interventions the choice
betweena fixed-effect and a random-effects meta-analysis
should not solely be made according o the statistical test for
heterogeneity. Methodological or conceptual heterogene
ity is unavoidable in a meta-analysis, so a random effects
model may be more reasonable. Therefore, a random effects
model was applied in this study. Two-sided p-values were
‘obtained from the statistical analyses, anda funnel plot was
used to assess publication bias
Results
Study screening and enrollment
After the inital search, 112articles were selected, with no
auditional record fund from other sources, These articles
Included 59 duplicates, which were removed. After evaluat
ing the relevance ofthe abstracts and titles of the remaining,
Sdarticles, 19 were excluded, The all texts ofthe remaining
B4articles were screened, and 18 more were discarded.
Ultimately, 16 articles were included in the meta-analy.
sis."91 The PRISMA flow diagram ofthis study is shown,
in Fig. 1. The prebiotics group included 3,211 infants, with
3,227 infants in the control group (the total population size
‘was 6438), Table I summarizes the demographic data and
characteristics ofthe 16 studies, Figure 2 shows the assess-
ment of risk bias of the included 16 studies.
Risk ratio and odds ratio
of sepsis events between groups
The prebiotics group had a significantly lower RR of sep
sis events according to the random effects model Z,= 3:70
and p = 0.001 for overall effect). Low heterogeneity was
obtained, with an F value of 32% (Fig. 3). The prebiotics
rroup also had a significantly lower OR of sepsis events
cording to the model (Z.= 3.31 and p = 0,001 for overall
effect), and the heterogeneity was low, wit
of 38% (Fig.
an P value
Discussion
The results suggest that prebiotic treatment could be ben-
ficial for reducing the rate of sepsis events in this large
sample of infants, which was supported by the RR, OR and
95% confidence intervals (95% Cls), One strength of this
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