In Vivo Evaluation of Immune-Enhancing Activity of Red Gamju Fermented by Probiotic Levilactobacillus brevis KU15154 in Mice

Immune-Enhancing Effects of Limosilactobacillus fermentum in BALB/c Mice Immunosuppressed by Cyclophosphamide

This study evaluates the immune-enhancing effects of Limosilactobacillus fermentum on cyclophosphamide (CP)-induced immunosuppression in BALB/c mice. In vitro, the expressions of pro-inflammatory cytokines and MAPK signaling molecules in Raw264.7 cells were analyzed by ELISA and Western blot analysis. Moreover, cell proliferation, surface receptor expression, and cytotoxicity of NK-92 cells were examined by Cell Counting Kit-8, CytoTox96 assay, and flow cytometry, respectively. To investigate the immune-enhancing effects of selected L. fermentum strains in vivo, these strains were orally administered to BALB/c mice for 2 weeks, and CP was intraperitoneally injected. Then, liver, spleen, and whole blood were isolated from each animal. Administration of single L. fermentum strains or their mixture sustained the spleen weight, the counts of white blood cells compared to non-fed group. Splenocyte proliferation and NK cytotoxicity were significantly increased in all L. fermentum-fed groups. The frequency of B220+ cells was also significantly enhanced in splenocytes isolated from L. fermentum groups. In addition, the production of cytokines (TNF-α, IFN-γ) and antibodies was recovered in splenocyte supernatants isolated from L. fermentum groups. In conclusion, L. fermentum could be a suitable functional food additive for immune-enhancing effect.

Research Advances in the Treatment of Allergic Rhinitis by Probiotics

Allergic rhinitis (AR) impairs the quality of life of patients and reduces the efficiency of social work, it is an increasingly serious public medical and economic problem in the world. Conventional anti-allergic drugs for the treatment of allergic rhinitis (AR) can cause certain side effects, which limit the quality of life of patients. Therefore, it makes sense to look for other forms of treatment. Several studies in recent years have shown that probiotics have shown anti-allergic effects in various mouse and human studies. For example, the application of certain probiotic strains can effectively relieve the typical nasal and ocular symptoms of allergic rhinitis in children and adults, thereby improving the quality of life and work efficiency. At the same time, previous studies in humans and mice have found that probiotics can produce multiple effects, such as reduction of Th2 cell inflammatory factors and/or increase of Th1 cell inflammatory factors, changes in allergy-related immunoglobulins and cell migration, regulate Th1/Th2 balance or restore intestinal microbiota disturbance. For patients with limited activity or allergic rhinitis with more attacks and longer attack duration, oral probiotics have positive effects. The efficacy of probiotics in the prevention and treatment of allergic rhinitis is remarkable, but its specific mechanism needs further study. This review summarizes the research progress of probiotics in the treatment of allergic rhinitis in recent years.

Microbial Communities in Retail Draft Beers and the Biofilms They Produce

In the beer brewing industry, microbial spoilage presents a consistent threat that must be monitored and controlled to ensure the palatability of a finished product. Many of the predominant beer spoilage microbes have been identified and characterized, but the mechanisms of contamination and persistence remain an open area of study. Postproduction, many beers are distributed as kegs that are attached to draft delivery systems in retail settings where ample opportunities for microbial spoilage are present. As such, restaurants and bars can experience substantial costs and downtime for cleaning when beer draft lines become heavily contaminated. Spoilage monitoring on the retail side of the beer industry is often overlooked, yet this arena may represent one of the largest threats to the profitability of a beer if its flavor profile becomes substantially distorted by contaminating microbes. In this study, we sampled and cultured microbial communities found in beers dispensed from a retail draft system to identify the contaminating bacteria and yeasts. We also evaluated their capability to establish new biofilms in a controlled setting. Among four tested beer types, we identified over a hundred different contaminant bacteria and nearly 20 wild yeasts. The culturing experiments demonstrated that most of these microbes were viable and capable of joining new biofilm communities. These data provide an important reference for monitoring specific beer spoilage microbes in draft systems and we provide suggestions for cleaning protocol improvements.

IMPORTANCE Beer production, packaging, and service are each vulnerable to contamination by microbes that metabolize beer chemicals and impart undesirable flavors, which can result in the disposal of entire batches. Therefore, great effort is taken by brewmasters to reduce and monitor contamination during production and packaging. A commonly overlooked quality control stage of a beer supply chain is at the retail service end, where beer kegs supply draft lines in bars and restaurants under nonsterile conditions. We found that retail draft line contamination is rampant and that routine line cleaning methods are insufficient to efficiently suppress beer spoilage. Thus, many customers unknowingly consume spoiled versions of the beers they consume. This study identified the bacteria and yeast that were resident in retail draft beer samples and also investigated their abilities to colonize tubing material as members of biofilm communities.