Probiotic bacteria naturally produce beneficial compounds—including short-chain fatty acids, bacteriocins, and vitamins—but often at concentrations too low for therapeutic effect. Current strains typically generate metabolites in the micromolar range, while clinical studies indicate millimolar concentrations are needed for many health benefits. Understanding and optimizing these metabolic pathways represents a key challenge in probiotic development.

The fundamental challenge lies in increasing metabolite yields while maintaining cell viability and ensuring the enhanced strains remain stable through manufacturing and storage.

This page brings together solutions from recent research—including targeted genetic modifications, optimized fermentation conditions, strain co-cultivation approaches, and substrate engineering techniques. These and other approaches focus on practical methods to enhance metabolite production while preserving the essential probiotic characteristics needed for commercial applications.

1. Limosilactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 Produce Bioactive Components during Formulation in Sucrose

L. Lundberg, Manuel Mata Forsberg, James Lemanczyk - MDPI AG, 2024

Improved efficacy of probiotics can be achieved by using different strategies, including the optimization of production parameters. The impact of fermentation parameters on bacterial physiology is a frequently investigated topic, but what happens during the formulation, i.e., the step where the lyoprotectants are added prior to freeze-drying, is less studied. In addition to this, the focus of process optimization has often been yield and stability, while effects on bioactivity have received less attention. In this work, we investigated different metabolic activities of the probiotic strain

2. Editorial: Probiotics and their metabolites in cancer therapy

Pourya Gholizadeh, Amir Hossein Faghfouri, Pio Maria Furneri - Frontiers Media SA, 2024

The bacterial strains of probiotics can be either nave or genetically modified in any way. When utilized in dietary supplements, they are referred to as "live microbiological ingredients," when used as a drug, they are known as "live biotherapeutic agents." Most probiotics are categorized into bifidobacterial and lactic acid bacterial strains. However, certain bacteria and yeasts are also classified as probiotics. Probiotics play critical roles in preventing and effectively treating various types of cancer (Faghfuri et al., 2024;Feizi et al., 2024). Probiotics and their pro-bioactive cellular materials offer numerous therapeutic benefits for the gastrointestinal tract, including the release of various enzymes and potential synergistic effects on digestion. Specific components of probiotic lactic acid bacteria can modulate immune responses, activate the reticuloendothelial system, enhance cytokine pathways, and regulate interleukins and tumor necrosis factors. The primary mechanisms through which probiotics exert anticancer and antimutagenic effects include the binding, degradation, ... Read More

3. Biological activity of probiotic microorganisms depending on cultivation conditions

V. V. Domnysheva, D. A. Domnyshev, Y. A. Gulyaeva - Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Education Novosibirsk State Agrarian University, 2024

Metabiotics, a new generation of probiotics based on biologically active components (metabolites), are currently the subject of interest and study in the scientific community. This is a more advanced and promising form of probiotic preparations, among the properties of which high bioavailability, safety, and 'versatility in use are especially noted. The article presents a study of the antagonistic activity and biofilm formation of opportunistic strains of microorganisms under the influence of metabolites of probiotic microorganisms grown on 'various nutrient media and in different physical states. The objectives posed during the study answer questions about the biological activity of probiotic microorganisms grown on different nutrient media and in various physical states. The data obtained will form the basis for further research of active components that allow obtaining a clinical effect and will also help formulate an approach to developing the most effective ready-made forms of metabiotics. The place of research is the microbiological laboratory of the Testing Center of the Testi... Read More

4. The Health Regulatory Effect of Lactic Acid Bacteria on Human Body

Yichen Guan - Warwick Evans Publishing, 2024

Probiotics are a kind of active microorganisms that are beneficial to the host by colonizing in the human body and changing the composition of the flora in a certain part of the host. The organic acids, special enzymes and actinomycins produced by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have special physiological functions. LAB can regulate the normal flora of gastrointestinal tract and maintain the microecological balance, so as to improve gastrointestinal function, increase food digestibility and biotiter, reduce serum cholesterol, control endotoxin, inhibit the growth of spoilage bacteria in intestinal tract, and improve body immunity. This paper studied the existence mode and influencing factors of probiotics and took LAB as an example to mainly describe the research progress of LAB in probiotics, discussed the mechanism of probiotics to maintain the ecological balance of intestinal flora, summarized the impact of probiotics on human body, and aimed at various problems and deficiencies faced by the probiotic industry at present. Some suggestions on the future research direction are put forwa... Read More

5. Postbiotics: the new horizons of microbial functional bioactive compounds in food preservation and security

Bishwambhar Mishra, Awdhesh Kumar Mishra, Yugal Kishore Mohanta - Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2024

Abstract In recent decades, consumers, manufacturers, and researchers have been more interested in functional foods, which include probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics. Probiotics are live microbes that, when regulated in enough quantities, provide health benefits on the host, while the prebiotics are substrates that host microorganisms selectively use. Postbiotics are metabolites and cell-wall components that are beneficial to the host and are released by living bacteria or after lysis. Postbiotic dietary supplements are more stable than probiotics and prebiotics. Many bioactivities of postbiotics are unknown or poorly understood. Hence, this study aims to present a synopsis of the regular elements and new developments of the postbiotics including health-promoting effects, production, conceptualization of terms, bioactivities, and applications in the field of food safety and preservation. Postbiotics aid in bio preservation and the reduction of biofilm development in food due to their organic acids, bacteriocins, and other antibacterial activities. The present study examines the ... Read More

6. Dietary supplementation with <i>Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus</i> IDCC3201 alleviates sarcopenia by modulating the gut microbiota and metabolites in dexamethasone-induced models

Minkyoung Kang, Min‐Ji Kang, Jiseon Yoo - Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), 2024

Probiotics can exert direct or indirect influences on various aspects of health claims by altering the composition of the gut microbiome and producing bioactive metabolites. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of

7. Effects of some locally isolated Lactobacillus species on general growth, muscular mass and bone development in mice

Shamsa Jabeen, Javed Iqbal Qazi, Ali Hasan - Elsevier BV, 2024

Probiotics are dietary supplements which contain live microorganisms, mostly different bacterial species that inhabit gut of host and ultimately benefit that host. The current investigation was done to explore the growth-promoting effects of four locally isolated probiotics strains L. paracasei, L. paracaseii, L. delbrueckii and L. rhamnosus. In this regard, 108 colony-forming units (CFU) were administered to the mice of experimental groups for 30 days. Upon administering probiotics, it was observed that the Lactobacilli species had a positive impact on body weight. The group that received L. rhamnosus exhibited the most significant increase, with a 76.53 % improvement over the control group (P < 0.05). Positive effects on somatic indices of different organs including spleen, thymus, kidneys, heart, liver, and lungs were also observed. In addition to all of these, the increases in the number of extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle fibers and their cross-sectional area (CSA) up to 40.70 % and 28.94 % respectively in L. rhamnosus group as compared with the control group. In the L. rh... Read More

8. Probiotic Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis Probio-M8 improves the fermentation and probiotic properties of fermented milk

Yaru Sun, Shuai Guo, Lai‐Yu Kwok - American Dairy Science Association, 2024

Probiotics are increasingly used as starter cultures to produce fermented dairy products; however, few studies have investigated the role of probiotics in milk fermentation metabolism. The current study aimed to investigate whether adding Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis Probio-M8 (Probio-M8) as a starter culture strain could improve milk fermentation by comparing the physico-chemical characteristics and metabolomes of fermented milks produced by a commercial starter culture with and without Probio-M8. Our results showed that adding Probio-M8 shortened the milk fermentation time and improved the fermented milk texture and stability. Metabolomics analyses revealed that adding Probio-M8 affected mostly organic acid, amino acid, and fatty acid metabolism in milk fermentation. Targeted quantitative analyses revealed significant increases in various metabolites related to the sensory quality, nutritive value, and health benefits of the probiotic fermented milk, including 5 organic acids (acetic acid, lactic acid, citric acid, succinic acid, and tartaric acid), 5 essential amino acids ... Read More

9. Strategies, Trends, and Technological Advancements in Microbial Bioreactor System for Probiotic Products

Soubhagya Tripathy, Ami R. Patel, Deepak Kumar Verma - Wiley, 2023

Because of the positive effects that probiotics have on human health, their use in pharmaceutical formulations and the development of functional foods have become increasingly widespread. The use of functional foods, such as probiotic foods, has become a mainstream trend in modern dietetics. To be effective, the health benefits of probiotic foods require that the viability of the probiotic bacteria is preserved not just during the production process and the shelf life of the product but also while the product is being digested by the consumer's digestive system. The health of the human host is substantially impacted by the microbial environment that is found in the human digestive tract. Some of the strains that make up this microbial community are referred to as "probiotics," and they are taken in their live form for the purpose of promoting health benefits and protecting the mucosal layer of the gut from invaders, which in turn strengthens the immune system. This community of microbes is responsible for a wide variety of processes, including the regulation of metabolic activities, ... Read More

10. Application of Probiotics and Metazoans in Cosmetics

Hongxiao Qi - EWA Publishing, 2023

Probiotics are living microorganisms that when administered in appropriate quantities bring health benefits to the host. Probiotics products have been developed in the form of dairy products, dietary supplements, fermentation and enzyme preparations or other biological agents, and the global probiotics industry is growing at a rate of 15% to 20% per year. The clinical application of probiotics is becoming more and more extensive, especially in bacteriostasis, treatment of intestinal diseases, neonatal diseases and immune diseases, as well as in lowering blood pressure, lowering blood lipids, anti-aging, anti-tumor and central nervous system diseases. Metagenin refers to the bioactive compounds beneficial to health produced in the fermentation process of probiotics. Metagenin has anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, immune regulation, antioxidant, anti-obesity, anti-hypertension, hypidemia, liver protection, promoting wound healing and other biological activities, which has broad prospects in the development of new health functional food. This topic will be used for the method of investi... Read More

11. Editorial: Role of probiotics and probiotics' metabolites in food and intestine

Vincenzina Fusco, Rina Wu, Wenyi Zhang - Frontiers Media SA, 2023

The emergence and exploration of new disciplines and technologies have provided new ideas and opportunities for probiotic science and industry development. The interaction between diet and intestinal flora has become a new target for human health regulation. Recently, probiotic supplements have received increasing attention as an important tool to modulate the gut microbiota (Brito Sampaio, Fusco, de Brito Alves, Leite de Souza, 2022). Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are powerful probiotics in the intestinal tract that can participate in metabolic regulation by directly or indirectly influencing the inhibition or activation of the signaling pathways. LAB can synthesize a variety of active metabolites, producing short-chain fatty acids, vitamins, enzymes, organic acids and antibacterial peptides. These metabolites can regulate the intestinal epithelium's barrier function and provide health benefits to the host. Studies have found that probiotics have a variety of biological activities (Leite de Souza, de Brito Alves, Fusco, 2022; Brito Sampaio et al., 2022). However, their application is s... Read More

12. The potential of paraprobiotics and postbiotics to modulate the immune system: A Review

Jeet P. Mehta, Sonal Ayakar, Rekha S. Singhal - Elsevier BV, 2023

Probiotics are viable microorganisms that provide beneficial health effects when consumed in adequate quantity by the host. Immunomodulation is one of the major beneficial effects of probiotics that is a result of the colonization of probiotic microorganisms in the gut, their interaction with the intestinal cells, production of various metabolites and by-products. The last few years have displayed an increasing number of studies on non-viable probiotics (paraprobiotics) and microbial by-products (postbiotics) that prove beneficial to human health by providing positive immune responses even in the inactivated form. The increasing number of research studies compare the effects of viable and non-viable probiotics, their by-products, and metabolites. This review focuses on the ability of different types of paraprobiotics and postbiotics to modulate the immune system. A majority of paraprobiotics are developed from Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains. The postbiotic components that modulate the biological reactions include lipoteichoic acids, bacteriocins, short-chain fatty acids, p... Read More

13. The Current and Future Perspectives of Postbiotics

Bing Liang, Dongming Xing - Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2023

With the emphasis on intestinal health, probiotics have exploded into a vast market potential. However, new scientific evidence points out that the beneficial health benefits of probiotics are not necessarily directly related to viable bacteria. However, the metabolites or bacterial components of the live bacteria are the driving force behind health promotion. Therefore, scientists gradually noticed that the beneficial effects of probiotics are based on bacteria itself, metabolites, or cell lysates, and these factors are officially named postbiotics by the ISAPP. Postbiotic components are diverse and outperform live probiotics in terms of technology, safety, and cost due to their good absorption, metabolism, and organismal distribution. Postbiotics have been shown to have bioactivities such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, and immunomodulation. Moreover, numerous studies have revealed the significant potential of postbiotics for disease treatment. This paper first presents the production and classification of postbiotics with examples from lacti... Read More

14. Mass Propagation of Lactic Acid Bacteria

Sayen Merlin Sophia Sylvester, Sanjivkumar Muthusamy, Nagajothi Kasilingam - Springer US, 2023

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are one of the promising group of Gram-positive bacteria, highly applicable as biorefineries and used for their capability to metabolize a vast variety of substrates into more economically valuable food components and pharmaceutical precursors. They are highly considerable as a starter culture for fermentation process in order to produce different fermented food products with more nutritional value and digestibility. Lactic acid bacteria are more significant groups of probiotic organisms to maintain as well as restore the gut microflora inpatients who are distressed from diarrhea. Under fermentation conditions, LAB have the ability to synthesis numerous metabolites, such as antioxidants, lactic acid, reuterin, bacteriocins, reutericyclin, vitamins, and other biometabolites that make LAB highly potential at a biotechnological level. LAB-mediated fermented food products have some antitumor effects and the biosynthesized metabolites such as propionic, lactic, and acetic acid possess antifungal properties. By keeping this view, in this study, the most metabolic... Read More

15. Bifidobacterium adolescentis B8589- and Lacticaseibacillus paracasei PC-01-co-fermented milk has more γ-aminobutyric acid and short-chain fatty acids than Lacticaseibacillus paracasei PC-01-fermented milk

Yaru Sun, Shuai Guo, Ting Wu - Elsevier BV, 2023

Probiotics are increasingly used in the fermentation industry owing to their probiotic properties. However, most previous studies of milk fermentation are based on single-strain fermentation or focused on interactions between the starter strains without considering the role of probiotics in the microbial ecosystem. Thus, in this study, we compared the differences in the fermented milk metabolomes of single-strain fermentation with Lacticaseibacillus paracasei PC-01 (PC-01) versus dual-strain fermentation with both PC-01 and a probiotic, Bifidobacterium adolescentis B8589 (B8589), with the aim of revealing the metabolic effect of adding B8589 in the milk fermentation process. Although co-fermenting with B8589 did not influence the growth of PC-01, non-targeted metabolomics revealed significant changes in the dual-strain fermented milk metabolomes, characterized by increased levels of amino acid metabolites. Targeted metabolomics analysis confirmed that, by adding B8589 as the co-fermentation culture, the level of -aminobutyric acid increased by seven times; and the contents of acetat... Read More

16. Effects of Adding Probiotics on Food and the Human Body

Zeming Chen - Darcy & Roy Press Co. Ltd., 2022

The normal growth and reproduction activities of probiotics have beneficial effects on the human body: regulating the human intestinal flora, promoting digestion and absorption, forming a barrier to protect the intestinal mucosa, reducing blood sugar and cholesterol, enhancing human immunity, scavenging free radicals to delay aging, etc. In addition, the active metabolites secreted by it also play an important role in the human body: decomposing cholesterol to produce acids to inhibit pathogenic bacteria, breaking down fats to produce short-chain fatty acids to promote the self-regulation of gastrointestinal mucosal cells, and metabolizing macromolecular substances (proteins, polysaccharides) to produce nutrients (amino acids, monosaccharides). And it is also widely used in food processing, human health and aquaculture. Probiotics also play an important role in food processing, where can change the pH value of food, extend the shelf life of food, improve the flavor of food, as a substitute for additives and increase the nutritional value of food. Although the traditional concept is t... Read More

17. Probiotics in Processed Dairy Products and Their Role in Gut Microbiota Health

Kishwer Fatima Sherwani, Dil Ara Abbas Bukhari - IntechOpen, 2022

Probiotics are the beneficial microorganisms, catalase negative which restore microbial balance inside the gut of humans as well as animals. Lactobacillus the earliest probiotic that have the beneficial impact on health. These Good Microorganisms can be obtained not only from various non-dairy products but also from processed dairy products like. Another economically viable method is microencapsulation for preserving probiotics and the stability is improved by glucose. Even the vitamins manufacturer the probiotic bacterial agents. The health benefits of probiotics include increased immunological responses, relief of lactose intolerance symptoms, therapy for diarrhea, reduction in serum of cholesterol, production of vitamin, anticarcinogenic. Probiotics play a wide range in the host body (e.g., decreasing illnesses and stress, enhancing immunity, modulation of gut microbiota, nutritional assistance, improving quality of water, etc.). So, the positive effects of probiotics help to boost animal feed value and growth and improve aquaculture breeding and hatching rates. Probiotics can l... Read More

18. Characteristics of Probiotic Preparations and Their Applications

Guangqiang Wang, Yunhui Chen, Yongjun Xia - MDPI AG, 2022

The probiotics market is one of the fastest growing segments of the food industry as there is growing scientific evidence of the positive health effects of probiotics on consumers. Currently, there are various forms of probiotic products and they can be categorized according to dosage form and the site of action. To increase the effectiveness of probiotic preparations, they need to be specifically designed so they can target different sites, such as the oral, upper respiratory or gastrointestinal tracts. Here we review the characteristics of different dosage forms of probiotics and discuss methods to improve their bioavailability in detail, in the hope that this article will provide a reference for the development of probiotic products.

19. Probiotics: Role of bioactives in foods and dietary supplements

Megha K Kumar, Sonia Morya - AkiNik Publications, 2022

Bacteria in the human gut play a significant role in the host's metabolic functions. These bacteria's metabolites have an impact on the host's physiology and health. The gut flora is subjected to a multitude of environmental factors, including way of life, strain, antibiotics, host genetics, and diseases. When a disease pathogenesis occurs, the intestinal microbial composition changes which results in a diseased state. This stage is caused by bacterial pathogen colonization in the intestinal environment. Probiotic strains can be injected into the intestinal environment to treat the pathological condition. Medicinal compounds produced by probiotic strains include amino acids, vitamins, bacteriocins, enzymes, immunomodulatory compounds, and Short Chain Fatty Acids (SCFAs). This review describes latest proofs of the effect of bioactive components produced by probiotic bacteria on food and host wellbeing while having no impact on good bacteria sharing the same niche.

20. Effects of Live Combined Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus faecium on Gut Microbiota Composition in C57BL/6 Mice and in Humans

Xionge Pi, Weilin Teng, Dibo Fei - Frontiers Media SA, 2022

Probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics can alleviate metabolic syndrome by altering the composition of the gut microbiota. Live combined Enterococcus faecium and Bacillus subtilis has been indicated to promote growth and reduce inflammation in animal models. However, the modulatory effects of live combined B. subtilis R-179 and E. faecium R-026 (LCBE) on human microbiota remain unclear. The current study examined the growth of these two strains in the presence of various oligosaccharides and assessed the effects of this probiotic mixture on human and murine gut microbiota in vitro and in vivo. Oligosaccharides improved the growth of E. faecium R-026 and B. subtilis R-179 as well as increased their production of short-chain fatty acids. E. faecium R-026 or B. subtilis R-179 co-incubated with Bifidobacterium and Clostridium significantly increased the number of the anaerobic bacteria Bifidobacterium longum and Clostridium butyricum by in vitro fermentation. Moreover, LCBE significantly reduced plasma cholesterol levels in mouse models of hyperlipidemia. LCBE combined with galacto-oligo... Read More

21. Technology aspects of probiotic production and live biotherapeutics

22. THE ROLE OF PROBIOTICS AND PREBIOTICS IN OPTIMIZING THE COMPOSITION OF THE INTESTINAL MICROBIOME OF ATHLETES

23. Probiotics and Prebiotics as Functional Foods

24. Effect of single probiotics Lacticaseibacillus casei CGMCC1.5956 and Levilactobacillus brevis CGMCC1.5954 and their combination on the quality of yogurt as fermented milk

25. Streptomyces genus as a source of probiotics and its potential for its use in health

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