The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will soon begin research in the area of 'role of probiotics in child health and women’s health'.

Broad areas for research in the area of 'role of probiotics in child health' include: probiotics influence on immunological response to both oral and parenteral vaccines; effect of probiotics on virus infections in organs other than GI tract; studies on role of probiotics bacteria in mucosal protection against HIV in breastfeeding; and probiotics as adjunct/alternative to antibiotic therapy.

Antibiotic resistance is a burgeoning problem in India. Due to the availability of over-the-counter antibiotics and improper and rampant use, antibiotic resistance in the Indian population has sky rocketed. Probiotics can be studied and used as alternative and/or adjunctive therapy to conventional antibiotic therapy in various infectious disease states.

The research in this area also include: examination of colonizing ability of different strains in target populations (neonates, infants, paediatricc, adult and elderly population); study of gut flora using molecular techniques such as DGGE, FISH, quantitative real time PCR for specific bacterial species, and pyrosequencing, studies to examine how it changes/affects the overall gut flora in infancy; and examination of long term colonization patterns of probiotics.

Apart from looking at the immediate changes in gut flora (that may affect health and disease during that period), it is equally important to examine the colonization pattern over the longer term. Changes in gut flora over 1-2 years may have very serious positive or negative effects.

The study on 'role of probiotics in child health' also includes: examination of local (gut milieu) and systemic immune response to probiotic therapy; studies in the field (village/community); role of diet in colonization of probiotics; selective use of probiotics in defined diarrhoeal conditions; and studies exploring detoxifying effects of probiotics strains.

The broad areas for research on 'role of probiotics in woman’s health' include: studies on role of probiotics in restoring and maintaining uro-genital health; interventional studies showing improvement in uro-genital health (UTI, BV, vulvovaginal candidiasis,); clinical interventional studies exploring role of probiotics in improving perinatal outcomes in women; role of probiotics in reducing preterm birth; role of probiotics in the field of female controlled HIV prevention; and probiotics as delivery agents for antiretroviral drugs.

The ICMR has invited proposals from the eligible scientists for the research in this field. Last Date for submission of proposals is August 15, 2011.