Biosurfactant and Antiviral Activity of Multistrain Probiotics

The COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 has become a great threat to humans. However, there is no recommendation for an effective and safe drug to treat the disease. The strategy developed in this study is to utilize biosurfactant activity of multistrain probiotics consisting of Lactobacillus spp. and Rhodopseudomonas palustris to prevent the virus from entering human body. The outer membrane of the virus is comprising of phospholipid compounds. Biosurfactants, are known to have detergent-like properties (able to dissolve lipids) that are safe for in vivo use. Thus, the biosurfactant activity of the multistrain probiotics extract is expected to be able to disrupt the phospholipid membrane, resulting in the inactivity of the virus to infect human body. The biosurfactant activity of the probiotics extract was evaluated using oil spreading, drop collapse, and emulsification methods. The virus infectivity was evaluated on the SARS-CoV-2 of delta variant as a virus model. The results showed that the probiotics extract has biosurfactant activity, able to inhibit virus growth up to 99.9% within 48 hours in the prevention platform, and up to 99.6% within 48 hours in the treatment platform. Therefore, the multistrain probiotics extract was identified to have potential as a promising antiviral agent.