Insights into the Composition of a Co-Culture of 10 Probiotic Strains (OMNi BiOTiC® AAD10) and Effects of Its Postbiotic Culture Supernatant

The microplastic-crisis: Role of bacteria in fighting microplastic-effects in the digestive system

Plastic particles smaller than 5 mm, referred to as Microplastics, pose health risks, like metabolic, immunological, neurological, reproductive, and carcinogenic effects, after being ingested. Smaller plastic particles are more likely to be absorbed by human cells, with nanoplastics showing higher potential for cellular damage, including DNA fragmentation and altered protein functions. Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) affect the gastrointestinal tract by altering the microbial composition, they could influence digestive enzymes, and possibly disrupt mucus layers. In the stomach, they potentially interfere with digestion and barrier functions, while in the intestines, they could increase permeability via inflammation and tissue disruption. MNPs can lead to microbial dysbiosis, leading to gastrointestinal symptoms. By activating inflammatory pathways, altering T cell functions and affecting dendritic cells and macrophages, immune system homeostasis could possibly be disrupted. Probiotics offer potential strategies to alleviate plastic effects, by either degrading plastic particles or directly countering health effects. We compared genetic sequences of probiotics to the genome of known plastic degraders and concluded that no probiotic bacteria could serve the role of plastic degradation. However, probiotics could directly mitigate MNP-health effects. They can restore microbial diversity, enhance the gut barrier, regulate bile acid metabolism, reduce inflammation, regulate insulin balance, and counteract metabolic disruptions. Antioxidative properties protect against lipid peroxidation and MNP-related reproductive system damage. Probiotics can also bind and degrade toxins, like heavy metals and bisphenol A. Additionally, bacteria could be used to aggregate MNPs and reduce their impact. Therefore, probiotics offer a variety of strategies to counter MNP-induced health effects.

A Comprehensive Overview of Postbiotics with a Special Focus on Discovery Techniques and Clinical Applications

The increasing interest in postbiotics, a term gaining recognition alongside probiotics and prebiotics, aligns with a growing number of clinical trials demonstrating positive outcomes for specific conditions. Postbiotics present several advantages, including safety, extended shelf life, ease of administration, absence of risk, and patentability, making them more appealing than probiotics alone. This review covers various aspects, starting with an introduction, terminology, classification of postbiotics, and brief mechanisms of action. It emphasizes microbial metabolomics as the initial step in discovering novel postbiotics. Commonly employed techniques such as NMR, GC-MS, and LC-MS are briefly outlined, along with their application principles and limitations in microbial metabolomics. The review also examines existing research where these techniques were used to identify, isolate, and characterize postbiotics derived from different microbial sources. The discovery section concludes by highlighting challenges and future directions to enhance postbiotic discovery. In the second half of the review, we delve deeper into numerous published postbiotic clinical trials to date. We provide brief overviews of system-specific trial applications, their objectives, the postbiotics tested, and their outcomes. The review concludes by highlighting ongoing applications of postbiotics in extended clinical trials, offering a comprehensive overview of the current landscape in this evolving field.

Characterization of Inflammatory Mediators and Metabolome in Interstitial Fluid Collected with Dermal Open Flow Microperfusion before and at the End of Dupilumab Treatment in Atopic Dermatitis

Dupilumab is a monoclonal antibody approved for the treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD); however, its effects on molecular, cellular, and immunological levels remain to be elucidated. In this study, blood and dermal interstitial fluid (ISF) from nonlesional (NL) and lesional (L) skin were collected from eight patients with moderate to severe AD, before (visit 2-v2) and at the end of a 16-week treatment with dupilumab (visit 10-v10). Clinical treatment effect was demonstrated by significantly decreased AD severity scores at the end of treatment. At v10 versus v2, the percentages of CD4+ interleukin-producing cells showed a decreasing trend in ISF L and NL, unbound IL-4 levels in plasma were increased, IL-5 levels in ISF L reduced, and levels of factors involved in anti-inflammatory pathways and re-epithelization increased. At v2, ISF L showed that AD lesions might have altered amino acid pathways and lipid signaling compared to ISF NL. At v10, ISF L exhibited raised levels of long- and very-long-chain fatty acids and lipids compared to v2. Furthermore, dupilumab administration caused reduced expression of miR-155-5p and miR-378a-3p in ISF L. In conclusion, results from the present study provided novel knowledge by linking local immune and metabolic alterations to AD pathogenesis and treatment response.

Protective effects of a new generation of probiotic Bacteroides fragilis against colitis in vivo and in vitro

Bacteroides fragilis, one of the potential next-generation probiotics, but its protective mechanism is not yet known. We aimed to characterize the anti-inflammatory effect of B. fragilisATCC25285 and to elucidate its mechanism through in vivo and in vitro experiments. An in vitro model of inflammation by induction of colonic cells with TNF-a, and co-cultured with B. fragilis to detect cell viability, apoptosis and invasive capacity. Furthermore, critical proteins of the TLR/NF-κB pathway and the inflammatory cytokines were measured. For animal trials, C57BL/6 J male mice were orally administered B. fragilis or PBS once daily for 21 days. Colitis was induced by drinking 2.5% DSS from days 0 to 7. The mice were weighed daily and rectal bleeding, stool condition and blood in the stool were recorded. We found that B. fragilis treatment alone was harmless and had no effect on cell viability or apoptosis. While predictably TNF-α decreased cell viability and increased apoptosis, B. fragilis attenuated this deterioration. The NF-κB pathway and inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-1β activated by TNF-α were also blocked by B. fragilis. Notably, the metabolic supernatant of B. fragilis also has an anti-inflammatory effect. Animal studies showed that live B. fragilis rather than dead strain ameliorated DSS-induced colitis, as evidenced by weight loss, shortened colon length and enhanced barrier function. The colonic tissue levels of inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6) were decreased and IL-10 was increased as a result of B. fragilis administration. In conclusion, B. fragilis ATCC25285 exhibited anti-inflammatory effects whether in vivo or in vitro, and it may be a potential probiotic agent for improving colitis.

Optimizing postbiotic production through solid-state fermentation with Bacillus amyloliquefaciens J and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum SN4 enhances antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities

Background

Postbiotics are an emerging research interest in recent years and are fairly advanced compared to prebiotics and probiotics. The composition and function of postbiotics are closely related to fermentation conditions.

Methods

In this study, we developed a solid-state fermentation preparation method for postbiotics with antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities. The antibacterial activity was improved 3.62 times compared to initial fermentation conditions by using optimization techniques such as single factor experiments, Plackett-Burman design (PBD), steepest ascent method (SAM), and central composite design (CCD) methods. The optimized conditions were carried out with an initial water content of 50% for 8 days at 37°C and fermentation strains of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens J and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum SN4 at a ratio of 1:1 with a total inoculum size of 8%. The optimized SSF medium content ratios of peptide powder, wheat bran, corn flour, and soybean meal were 4, 37.4, 30, and 28.6%, respectively.

Results

Under these optimized conditions, postbiotics with a concentration of 25 mg/mL showed significant broad-spectrum antibacterial capabilities against Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and Staphylococcus aureus and strong antioxidant activity against ABTS, DPPH, and OH radicals. Moreover, the optimized postbiotics exhibited good anti-inflammatory ability for reducing nitric oxide (NO) secretion in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells in response to LPS-induced inflammation. Furthermore, the postbiotics significantly improved intestinal epithelial wound healing capabilities after mechanical injury, such as cell scratches in IPEC-J2 cells (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

In brief, we developed postbiotics through optimized solid-state fermentation with potential benefits for gut health. Therefore, our findings suggested that the novel postbiotics could be used as potential functional food products for improving body health.

Advances in Nutrition: Opportunities and Challenges in 2022

Many aspects of how food and diet can improve individual health, performance, and wellbeing remain to be discovered [...].

The Antimicrobial Effect of Various Single-Strain and Multi-Strain Probiotics, Dietary Supplements or Other Beneficial Microbes against Common Clinical Wound Pathogens

The skin is the largest organ in the human body and is colonized by a diverse microbiota that works in harmony to protect the skin. However, when skin damage occurs, the skin microbiota is also disrupted, and pathogens can invade the wound and cause infection. Probiotics or other beneficial microbes and their metabolites are one possible alternative treatment for combating skin pathogens via their antimicrobial effectiveness. The objective of our study was to evaluate the antimicrobial effect of seven multi-strain dietary supplements and eleven single-strain microbes that contain probiotics against 15 clinical wound pathogens using the agar spot assay, co-culturing assay, and agar well diffusion assay. We also conducted genera-specific and species-specific molecular methods to detect the DNA in the dietary supplements and single-strain beneficial microbes. We found that the multi-strain dietary supplements exhibited a statistically significant higher antagonistic effect against the challenge wound pathogens than the single-strain microbes and that lactobacilli-containing dietary supplements and single-strain microbes were significantly more efficient than the selected propionibacteria and bacilli. Differences in results between methods were also observed, possibly due to different mechanisms of action. Individual pathogens were susceptible to different dietary supplements or single-strain microbes. Perhaps an individual approach such as a 'probiogram' could be a possibility in the future as a method to find the most efficient targeted probiotic strains, cell-free supernatants, or neutralized cell-free supernatants that have the highest antagonistic effect against individual clinical wound pathogens.