Interaction between intestinal microbiota, pathogens and the immune system take place in the human gut, which represents a complex ecosystem. A balance is fundamental between the host organism and the gut microbiota (Berrilli et al., 2012). Survivability and physiology of the parasites are greatly influenced by the products and metabolites produced by its gut microbiota which may regulate host immunity and thereby encourage the development of the parasites, as observed by some workers (Dea-Ayuela et al., 2008; Reynolds et al., 2014). Probiotic bacteria might also effectively lower the pathogenicity of several parasites, via a variety of mechanisms (Travers et al., 2011; Berrilli et al., 2012). Enhancement of the gut epithelial barrier, may enhance adherence to the intestinal mucosa while, simultaneously inhibiting pathogen adhesion, competitive elimination of pathogens, synthesis of anti-microbial compounds, and immune system regulation are the basic mechanisms of probiotics (Goudarzi et al., 2014). Several studies have investigated on the potential of these probiotics to alter the course of certain parasitic diseases (Travers et al., 2011). Such beneficial bacteria have reportedly reduce the parasite sustainability rate and pathogenic alterations in trichinellosis, ascariasis, toxocariasis and haemonchosis because of local and systemic immune active responses (Bautista-Garfias et al., 1999, 2001; Basualdo et al., 2007; Solano-Aguilar et al., 2009; Martínez-Gómez et al., 2009, 2011; El Temsahy et al., 2015; Dvorožňáková et al., 2016; Santana et al., 2023). Protozoan diseases such as giardiasis, coccidiosis, and cryptosporidiosis may all be favorably impacted by probiotics treatment (Alak et al., 1999; Humen et al., 2005; Gargala, 2008; Shukla and Sidhu, 2011). The effectiveness of probiotic bacterial strains as a host defense against blood parasites such as Babesia, Plasmodium, and Trypanosoma have also been investigated (Bautista-Garfias et al., 2005; Martínez-Gómez et al., 2006; Eze et al., 2012).

Helminth parasites continue to be a substantial source of sickness and death, especially in rural regions or among immigrant populations from endemic areas, not just in the majority of undeveloped nations but also in industrialized countries. Hymenolepis diminuta, a zoonotic cestode, is a member of the Hymenolepididae family with infection rates ranging from 0.001 to 5.5% in surveys of different populations, particularly in young individuals (McMillan et al., 1971; Stafford et al., 1980; Chung et al., 1985; Pampiglione et al., 1987; Lo et al., 1989; Mercado and Arias, 1995; Barabas et al., 2016; Rahman et al., 2021; Galoș et al., 2022). In a recent assessment (Panti-May et al., 2020) 1561 documented instances of H. diminuta infection in humans were found in 80 different countries, calculating the total number of human cases globally and the majority of these records lacked any indication that infected rodents had ever existed. Though infection with adult worms can often be asymptomatic, individuals may exhibit typical clinical signs such as diarrhea, stomach discomfort, and vomiting in cases of severe infestations as the case with other adult human tapeworms (Tiwari et al., 2014; Thompson, 2015; Sharifdini et al., 2019; Singh et al., 2020). Infection during pregnancy may impact both the mother and neonates (Kandi et al., 2019), and prenatal therapeutic interventions may increase the risk of developing metabolic disorders (Mahande and Mahande, 2016; Damtie and Liyih, 2021) and may also be fatal to people with weak immune system and to children with psychological challenges and developmental disorders (Oliveira et al., 2015). The most widely used method for treating tapeworm infection is through administering anthelmintic drugs to the affected people. However, the increase in drug resistance to these worm infections necessitates new strategies for control, which is an urgent need (Keiser et al., 2005; Brennan et al., 2007; Stothard et al., 2013). Additionally, H. diminuta is an important model organism in the experimental parasitology of the twenty-first century because of the biology of tapeworm and their adaptability to parasitism (Sulima-Celińska et al., 2022).

The protective effect of probiotics is achieved by the competitive exclusion or colonization resistance of harmful microbes in the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, their secretions may act as anthelmintics and lessen the virulence of a variety of parasites. Therefore probiotics might be an important aspect for preventing helminth parasite infection (Berrilli et al., 2012). There has been a lot of interest in recent research on the effects of probiotics on bacteria, parasites, and the immune system in the gut (Reynolds et al., 2015; El Temsahy et al., 2015; Dvorožňáková et al., 2016; Del Coco et al., 2016). Thus, it is crucial to explore as many probiotics as possible for controlling helminth infection as an alternative to conventional drug therapy. Contrary to this, we have reported that the cestode parasite H. diminuta reduced the load of probiotic Lactobacillus in rat intestine in a parasite density dependent manner and induced dysbiosis (Mandal et al., 2022). The present study therefore aims at supplementing the infection with a standard concentration of Lactobacillus taiwanensis strain S29 and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum strain S27 isolated from infected rats in our laboratory (Mandal et al., 2022) to test for the first time, against H. diminuta infection in Swiss Albino rat model. Percentage reduction EPG count, worm burden, body and organ weight, several physiological parameters, histopathological study, and density of intestinal tissue mitochondria form the parameters of the study.