Methods for Identifying and Characterizing Effective Probiotic Strains

Lactic acid bacteria have a long and extensive application record as probiotic strains. Lately, due to wide-spread use of molecular-genetic, transcirptomic, proteomic, metabolomic etc. studies and the massive accumulation of data on the structure and functions of symbiotic intestinal microbiota, the interest in probiotic microorganisms tends to expand year-by-year. Lactic acid bacteria were the first used probiotic species, are still of sharp market demand and have been recognized as the most thoroughly studied microbes among functional relatives. However, characteristics inherent to probiotic bacteria are strain-specific, as a rule, and for preparations with defined purpose it is essential to select special strains showing a complex of appropriate properties. It accentuates the top relevance of research aimed at selection of lactic acid bacterial strains suitable for diverse probiotic preparations. For several decades we curried out investigations to isolate strains of lactic acid bacteria from various natural sources, to characterize their properties and to derive technologies of p... Read More

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Abstract Probiotics are live microorganisms that confer a health benefit on the host when administered in adequate amounts. Currently, seven genera are used for their probiotics potential. Strains having the desired characteristics are associated with plenty of health benefits. Recent literature shows that different plant and vegetable oils are associated with probiotics. Other reports indicated their various aspects. For instance, the effect of probiotics on plant-based oil, edible oil, probiotics, the use of oils for probiotics encapsulation, etc., are documented. It is also reported that probiotics from vegetable sources and plant oil have some advancements, such as vegetarian and lactose-intolerant people using them. The multidimensional association between probiotics and vegetable oils attracts researchers to explore it. This research area is growing fast, but more limited research data is needed. Hence, this literature study was performed to identify the relationship, pros, and cons and provide recent insight into the literature for the researchers. Materials were collected by... Read More

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Yeasts are gaining increasing attention for their potential health benefits as probiotics in recent years. Researchers are actively searching for new yeast strains with probiotic properties (i.e,

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Currently available references provide evidence on efficacy of probiotics strains but exclude product-specific information, making it challenging for healthcare professionals (HCPs) to provide suitable probiotic recommendations to consumers. This study describes the development and evaluation of an online probiotics e-reference database to assist HCPs in delivering evidence-based recommendations on probiotics to consumers. The database currently consists of 556 clinical studies collated through PubMed literature search, 753 probiotic products from multiple retail stores in Singapore and 5708 unique product-study links. Users can search for probiotics based on indication, product or strain. Based on a pilot evaluation by 25 pharmacists practising in hospital and retail settings, 84% agreed that the database helped in assessing the efficacy of probiotic products. All (100%) found the database easy to navigate and most (96%) would continue to use the database as an evidence-based e-reference for probiotic information.

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Probiotics are the nonpathogenic and alive bacteria that confer good effects on the host. The important property of probiotics is direct antimicrobial effects, stimulation of immunity, competing for adhesion site, completion for nutrients and improvement in digestion. Since ancient times different fermented dairy products have been used as the main source of probiotic bacteria. The main objective of this study was to isolate, identify and characterize lactic acid bacterial strains from different fermented dairy products including yoghurt, cheese, buttermilk and curd. To determine the potentials of probiotics different tests like bile tolerance, salt tolerance, acid tolerance and arginine hydrolysis were performed. In the present study it was observed that all the probiotic isolates were able to grow at low pH (2-6) and they were tolerant against NaCl (2%, 4%, 6%) and bile salt concentration (0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%). The probiotic isolates were shown to be arginine-positive as on a white background they displayed a bright orange colour. The growths of probiotic cultures were observed at dif... Read More

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Manufacturers desire to sell healthy food in response to the consumers desire to lead a healthy lifestyle has increased the use of probiotics during the past few decades. Probiotics are used in dairy products, as well as non-dairy items as a starter culture, encompassing a wide range of goods. Numerous phenotyping, physical characterisation, and genotyping techniques have been developed to identify probiotic lactobacilli to ensure quality management. These techniques are frequently precise enough to categorise probiotic strains by genus and species. Traditional microbiological methods were initially employed for genus and species identification. However, due to their numerous shortcomings as the probiotic ability is often strain-dependent, and that there is no way to differentiate between strains using simple microbiological techniques, new methods that are mostly based on the examination of nucleic acids have been developed. Therefore, the objective of the present review was to provide critical assessment on existing methods for identifying members of the genus Lactobacillus, to... Read More

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Probiotics, live microorganisms that confer health benefits to the host when administered in adequate amounts, have gained considerable attention for their potential in enhancing human health and well-being. This research paper presents a comprehensive overview of probiotics, including their production, characterization, types, and health benefits. The introduction emphasizes the significance of probiotics in maintaining a healthy human microbiota and provides a rationale for investigating their potential advantages. The production section details the processes involved in strain selection, isolation, and fermentation techniques for large-scale probiotic production. Furthermore, formulation considerations are discussed to ensure probiotic viability, stability, and functionality. The characterization section presents various methods for assessing probiotic viability, safety, and stability. The section on types of probiotics focuses on well-studied strains such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species, as well as emerging strains like Saccharomyces boulardii and Propionibacterium f... Read More

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Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host. Nowadays, the probiotic market is growing tremendously by using probiotics especially in foods, dietary supplements and pharmaceutical applications. Sometimes, the consumers get confused between probiotics and non-probiotics. A more precise use of the term probiotics will be useful to guide consumers and other stakeholders in differentiating the diverse products on the market. Since efficacy of probiotics is strain specific, the appropriate selection of probiotics is extremely important. This review focuses on discussing the following issues of probiotics including their major sources, selection criteria, health benefits and possible harms. The main selection criteria for probiotics include the following ability to: tolerate into a product at a sufficient level and remain viable throughout the shelf life of the product; withstand transit through a gastrointestinal tract; adhere to intestinal epithelial cells and colonize the lumen of the tract; produce a... Read More

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ProbioMinServer is a platform designed to help researchers access information on probiotics regarding a wide variety of characteristics, such as safety (e.g. antimicrobial resistance, virulence, pathogenic, plasmid, and prophage genes) and functionality (e.g. functional classes, carbohydrate-active enzyme, and metabolite gene cluster profile). Because probiotics are functional foods, their safety and functionality are a crucial part of health care. Genomics has become a crucial methodology for investigating the safety and functionality of probiotics in food and feed. This shift is primarily attributed to the growing affordability of next-generation sequencing technologies. However, no integrated platform is available for simultaneously evaluating probiotic strain safety, investigating probiotic functionality, and identifying known phylogenetically related strains.Thus, we constructed a new platform, ProbioMinServer, which incorporates these functions. ProbioMinServer accepts whole-genome sequence files in the FASTA format. If the query genome belongs to the 25 common probiotic specie... Read More

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AMA Bernatek M, Sommermeyer H, Wojtya A, Pitek J, Lachowicz-Winiewska S. The factors determining effective probiotic activity evaluation of survival and antibacterial activity of selected probiotic products: an in vitro study. Journal of Health Inequalities. 2023. doi:10.5114/jhi.2023.130528. APA Bernatek, M., Sommermeyer, H., Wojtya, A., Pitek, J., & Lachowicz-Winiewska, S. (2023). The factors determining effective probiotic activity evaluation of survival and antibacterial activity of selected probiotic products: an in vitro study. Journal of Health Inequalities. https://doi.org/10.5114/jhi.2023.130528 Chicago Bernatek, Magorzata, Henning Sommermeyer, Andrzej Wojtya, Jacek Pitek, and Sabina Lachowicz-Winiewska. 2023. "The factors determining effective probiotic activity evaluation of survival and antibacterial activity of selected probiotic products: an in vitro study". Journal of Health Inequalities. doi:10.5114/jhi.2023.130528. Harvard Bernatek, M., Sommermeyer, H., Wojtya, A., Pitek, J., and Lachowicz-Winiewska, S. (2023). The factors determining effective pro... Read More

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Probiotics have been used for decades to alleviate the negative side-effects of oral antibiotics, but our mechanistic understanding on how they work is so far incomplete. Here, we performed a metagenomic analysis of the fecal microbiota in participants who underwent a 14-d Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy with or without consumption of a multi-strain probiotic intervention (L. paracasei CNCM I-1518, L. paracasei CNCM I-3689, L. rhamnosus CNCM I-3690, and four yogurt strains) in a randomized, double-blinded, controlled clinical trial. Using a strain-level analysis for detection and metagenomic determination of replication rate, ingested strains were detected and replicated transiently in fecal samples and in the gut during and following antibiotic administration. Consumption of the fermented milk product led to a significant, although modest, improvement in the recovery of microbiota composition. Stratification of participants into two groups based on the degree to which their microbiome recovered showed i) a higher fecal abundance of the probiotic L. paracasei and L. rhamnosus... Read More

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Due to the enormous benefits for human health, probiotics have gained popularity in the current era of science and have received a lot of public interest recently. Many bacterial strains have been used as probiotics for commercial applications. For a long time, the only yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. boulardii, was referred to be a probiotic. Interest in the probiotic potential of different yeast strains has grown in recent years. The purpose of the present review is to explore the updated information on the efficacy of various yeast strains as probiotics for human welfare.

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Evaluation of Probiotic Properties of Lactobacilli in Breast Milk and Their Inhibitory Effect on Pathogenic Bacteria of the Gastrointestinal Tracts

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This review article addresses the strategic formulation of human probiotics and allows the reader to walk along the journey that metamorphoses commensal microbiota into target-based probiotics. It recapitulates what are probiotics, their history, and the main mechanisms through which probiotics exert beneficial effects on the host. It articulates how a given probiotic preparation could not be all-encompassing and how each probiotic strain has its unique repertoire of functional genes. It answers what criteria should be met to formulate probiotics intended for human use, and why certain probiotics meet ill-fate in pre-clinical and clinical trials? It communicates the reasons that taint the reputation of probiotics and cause discord between the industry, medical and scientific communities. It revisits the notion of host-adapted strains carrying niche-specific genetic modifications. Lastly, this paper emphasizes the strategic development of target-based probiotics using host-adapted microbial isolates with known molecular effectors that would serve as better candidates for bioprophylact... Read More

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Probiotic microorganisms that are potentially beneficial to the health of the host are commercially available in a great variety of products. Not all microorganism strains present in products have proven beneficial to the health properties. These products include not only foodstuffs but also dietary supplements, food for special medical purposes, medicinal products, as well as cosmetics and medical devices. These products contain from one to a dozen bacterial strains of the same or different species and sometimes also fungal strains. Since the pro-health effects of probiotics depend on a specific strain, the number of its cells in a dose, and the lack of pathogenic microorganisms, it is extremely important to control the quality of probiotics. Depending on the classification of a given product, its form, and its content of microorganisms, the correct determination of the number of microorganisms and their identification is crucial. This article describes the culture-dependent and culture-independent methods for testing the contents of probiotic microorganisms, in addition to biochemi... Read More

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Other SectionsAbstractIntroductionGetting StartedDefinitions Matter!Probiotic Characterization and AssessmentSafetyMechanisms of ActionGenerating Clinical EvidenceConclusionsFinancial supportConflicts of interestReferences

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The field of probiotics is up-and-coming, especially in management of microbial pathogens. Probiotics confer nutritional benefits, reduce inflammation and infection. Probiotics have also shown to be helpful in the management of microbial pathogens, which include bacteria, fungi, and viruses. To ernes this potential maximumly, there is a need for an elaborate screening system for new isolates. This entails; rigorous screening methods and thorough confirmatory systems. There is need also to come up with standard methods used to evaluate the probiotics mechanism of action both in vivo and in vitro. In summary, there is a need for a standard screening process for probiotic microorganisms that is reproducible. The aim is to ensure that, the candidate microbial cultures are not written off without proper investigations. This will also fasten the screening process and save time and resources wasted in pre-screening experiments.

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In recent decades, probiotic bacteria have become increasingly popular as a result of mounting scientific evidence to indicate their beneficial role in modulating human health. Although there is strong evidence associating various Lactobacillus probiotics to various health benefits, further research is needed, in particular to determine the various mechanisms by which probiotics may exert these effects and indeed to gauge inter-individual value one can expect from consuming these products. One must take into consideration the differences in individual and combination strains, and conditions which create difficulty in making direct comparisons. The aim of this paper is to review the current understanding of the means by which Lactobacillus species stand to benefit our gastrointestinal health.

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Probiotics, with their associated beneficial effects, have gained popularity for the control of foodborne pathogens. Various sources are explored with the intent to isolate novel robust probiotic strains with a broad range of health benefits due to, among other mechanisms, the production of an array of antimicrobial compounds. One of the shortcomings of these wild-type probiotics is their non-specificity. A pursuit to circumvent this limitation led to the advent of the field of pathobiotechnology. In this discipline, specific pathogen gene(s) are cloned and expressed into a given probiotic to yield a novel pathogen-specific strain. The resultant recombinant probiotic strain will exhibit enhanced species-specific inhibition of the pathogen and its associated infection. Such probiotics are also used as vehicles to deliver therapeutic agents. As fascinating as this approach is, coupled with the availability of numerous probiotics, it brings a challenge with regard to deciding which of the probiotics to use. Nonetheless, it is indisputable that an ideal candidate must fulfil the probioti... Read More

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Probiotic bacteria are widely administered as dietary supplements and incorporated as active ingredients in a variety of functional foods due to their purported health-promoting features. Currently available probiotic products may have issues with regards to their formulation, such as insufficient levels of viable probiotic bacteria, complete lack of probiotic strains that are stated to be present in the product, and the presence of microbial contaminants. To avoid the distribution of such unsuitable or misleading products, we propose here a novel approach named Probiotic Identity Card (PIC), involving a combination of shotgun metagenomic sequencing and bacterial cell enumeration by flow cytometry. PIC was tested on 12 commercial probiotic supplements revealing several inconsistencies in the formulation of five such products based on their stated microbial composition and viability.

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This study is aimed at investigating the effect of probiotic

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Advances in Probiotics: Microorganisms in Food and Health highlights recent advances in probiotic microorganisms, commercial probiotics, safety aspects of probiotics, preparation and commercialization, microbiome therapy for diseases and disorders, and next generation probiotics. This is a comprehensive resource of developments of new formulations and products for probiotic and prebiotic food with focus on the microorganisms to enable effective probiotic delivery. Publisher

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Probiotics have been formally defined as live microorganisms that confer a health benefit on the host when administered in adequate amounts. Although a range of applications has been explored for probiotics, their utility in antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) is both biologically plausible and supported by abundant clinical evidence. However, the strength of evidence underlying the efficacy of specific strains and formulations for AAD varies widely. This review leverages recent meta-analyses and systematic reviews to clarify some outstanding issues on the utility of probiotics for AAD, including which strains have evidence for efficacy in AAD, what doses have been demonstrated to be effective, and the optimal duration of probiotic therapy, and provides practical guidance on how to select an appropriate product. Some trends emerged in this analysis of recent meta-analyses and systematic reviews, including: 1) Certain probiotics, such as Saccharomyces boulardii and some Lactobacilli-containing products, are consistently found to be effective for the management of AAD; 2) Dosing thr... Read More

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The current study investigated the probiotic potential and postbiotic characteristics of some lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated from traditional high-acid and low-moisture yogurt-like products (Labaneh). The LAB isolates were screened for different probiotic properties, namely tolerance to the gastrointestinal conditions (in vitro digestion, bile salts, and lysozyme), physiological properties (auto-aggregation, co-aggregation, hydrophobicity, adhesion to HT-29 cells, and cholesterol-lowering), production of desirable substances (bile salt hydrolase, antimicrobials, and exopolysaccharides (EPS)), and susceptibility to antibiotics. These LAB isolates had reductions of 4.5 0.1 to 8.5 0.8 Log10 CFU/ml after in vitro digestion. The LAB exhibited cholesterol-lowering (>30%), pathogen-inhibiting properties, and hydrophobicity values of 7.186.0%, 18.087.3%, and 20.687.1% (for xylene, octane, and hexadecane, respectively). Resistance to lysozyme activity was also high in the selected LAB isolates. Selected LAB isolates belong to Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii, ... Read More

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Probiotics are defined as non-pathogenic live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer health benefits on the host. Association of probiotics with human beings has a lot of history. Well known as 'health-friendly bacteria', they are widely used commercially as a functional food. The popularity of probiotics has gone exponentially high due to an increasing number of clinical trials, supporting their beneficial effects. Several in vivo and in-vitro experimental evidence supports strain-specific and disease-specific probiotic efficacy to prevent and ameliorate antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, traveller's diarrhoea, ulcerative colitis, and many more. Besides, numerous recent studies have reported that probiotics could have a significant effect in alleviating various metabolic, lifestyle and diet-related disorders like obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome Strains of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus and Saccharomyces boulardii are the most commonly used as probiotics. Safety, efficacy, pathogenicity, infectivity, intrinsic property,... Read More

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Probiotics were defined as microbial strains that confer health benefits to their consumers. The concept has evolved during the last 20 years, and today metabolites produced by the strains, known as postbiotics, and even dead cells, known as paraprobiotics, are closely associated to them. The isolation of commensal strains from human microbiome has led to the development of next generation probiotics. This review aims to present an overview of the developments in the area of cancer prevention and treatment, intimately related to advances in the knowledge of the microbiome role in its genesis and therapy. Strain identification and characterization, production processes, delivery strategies, and clinical evaluation are crucial to translate results into the market with solid scientific support. Examples of recent tools in isolation, strain typification, quality control, and development of new probiotic strains are described. Probiotics market and regulation were originally developed in the food sector, but these new strategies will impact the pharmaceutical and health sectors, requiring... Read More

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The present study is focused on the safety, technological characteristics, and probiotic evaluation of

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The probiotic organisms are now used widely for different clinical indications. In an attempt to isolate a good probiotic strain for therapeutic applications, we have screened several isolates having probiotic attributes. The essential probiotic characters such as lactic acid production, antimicrobial activity, acid and bile tolerance, vitamin B12 production and antibiotic resistance pattern were considered as parameters for screening of probiotic bacteria from its natural habitats. Considering the said probiotic properties the strain EIPW5A was selected for the present study. The organism was identified as Lactobacillus fermentum based on its morphological, biochemical, physiological characters and 16S rRNA gene sequencing results.

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Background: Probiotics are good bacterial species. They confer health benefits to the human gastrointestinal tract. Lactobacillus spp. and Bifidobacterium are the most commonly used probiotic strains.Methods: In the present study; Lactic acid bacteria were isolated from the different regional yoghurt sample (masti, lite and household fermented dahi). Identification and analysis was done by different morphological characterization, biochemical tests and probiotic characterization like pH tolerance, bile salt tolerance, temperature tolerance and NaCl tolerance etc. of isolated lactobacillus spp.Result: This study indicated that Lactobacillus species from yogurt samples have potential probiotic properties.

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The term "probiotic" is derived from Greek words and means "for life." The definitions of this term were developed over time. The current definition of probiotic by FAO/WHO is "live microorganisms, when consumed in adequate amounts, confer a health effect on the host." The selection of candidate probiotics must be based on safety, functionality, and technological aspects. The theoretical basis for the selection of probiotics can be listed as human origin, stability in acid and bile salts, adherence to human intestinal cells, production of antimicrobial substances, safety in food and clinical use, and clinically validated and documented health effects. The starting point for the selection of probiotic candidates should be careful characterization of the strain using both phenotypic and genetic techniques. Then, the use of in vitro tests to assess the potential functionality and safety of the strains may facilitate the selection of the most appropriate probiotic.

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Probiotics, by definition, provide health benefits to the consumer. This holds true for both single- and multistrain probiotic products. In some markets, there is a tendency to include even more strains in a product with the suggestion that the number of strains alone is guaranteed for improved efficacy. Here, we have reviewed the literature and compared the efficacy of single- and multistrain probiotics in vitro, in animal and human studies. Both single- and multistrain probiotics are able to provide health benefits. However, it is currently not possible to conclude that one or the other is better suited for a particular health benefit. More and especially better comparative studies are needed. Further, no studies have currently addressed the hypothesis that multistrain probiotics would have a broader-efficacy spectrum than single-strain probiotics.

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The selection of potential probiotic strains that possess the physiological capacity of performing successfully in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is a critical challenge. Probiotic microorganisms must tolerate the deleterious effects of various stresses to survive passage and function in the human GIT. Adhesion to the intestinal mucosa is also an important aspect. Recently, numerous studies have been performed concerning the selection and evaluation of novel probiotic microorganisms, mainly probiotic bacteria isolated from dairy and nondairy products. Therefore, it would be crucial to critically review the assessment methods employed to select the potential probiotics. This article aims to review and discuss the recent approaches, methods used for the selection, and outcomes of the evaluation of novel probiotic strains with the main purpose of supporting future probiotic microbial assessment studies. The findings and approaches used for assessing acid tolerance, bile metabolism and tolerance, and adhesion capability are the focus of this review. In addition, probiotic bile deconjug... Read More

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Probiotics are living microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, provide a health benefit to the host and are considered safe. Most probiotic strains that are beneficial to human health are included in the Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) group. The positive effects of probiotic bacteria on the hosts health are species-specific and even strain-specific. Therefore, evaluating the probiotic potential of both wild and novel strains is essential. In this study, the probiotic characteristics of Lactobacillus brevis KT38-3 were determined. The strain identification was achieved by 16S rRNA sequencing. API-ZYM test kits were used to determine the enzymatic capacity of the strain. L. brevis KT38-3 was able to survive in conditions with a broad pH range (pH 27), range of bile salts (0.3%1%) and conditions that simulated gastric juice and intestinal juice. The percentage of autoaggregation (59.4%), coaggregation with E. coli O157:H7 (37.4%) and hydrophobicity were determined to be 51.1%, 47.4%, and 52.7%, respectively. L. brevis KT38-3 produced -galactosidase enzymes and was a... Read More

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Based on the probiotics ability, the genus Lactobacillus is frequently isolated from various fermented foods worldwide. Also, they have been used in novel foods preparation and fermented foods in pharmaceutical industries. In recent years, the more probiotic nature of novel indigenous microorganisms Lactobacillus is selected on the basis of its techno-functional characteristics nature. Among these, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are usually considered as important and safe microbes for consumption as well as employed for detecting the rich probiotic characteristic microbes. Generally, LAB have more probiotic nature, including carbohydrate intolerance, and followed by digestion, maintaining the cholesterol level in blood, decrease the cancer cell formation, and enhance the antibiotic production in gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts. The current chapter has focused on industrial requirements, various probiotic microbes in fermented foods, and other techno-functional traits of probiotics that are used to human health benefit.

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Traditional probiotics have a long history of use in foods, aiming to affect host health positively. Probiotics have been classified according to their formulation from the first to the fourth generation. A new family of probiotics, next-generation probiotics (NGPs), encompass bacteria discovered by new sequencing and bioinformatics technologies, as well as bacteria designed by synthetic biology. Most NGPs have been isolated from the gut microbiome and have no history of use. NGPs are required to improve the outcome of live biotherapeutic products for clinical use. Furthermore, probiotics' rational development is closely linked to the study of intestinal metabolic interactions such as cross-feeding. Advances in this area will allow microbial consortia development to be used as live biotherapeutics in functional foods or drugs.

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(1) Background: Probiotics are a live microbial supplement that improve hosts' health by maintaining intestinal microbiota. The evidence suggests that probiotics can be used as a therapeutic strategy to improve overall digestive health. Lactic acid bacteria strains have been extensively used as probiotics. (2) Method: To isolate lactic acid bacteria with probiotic potential from food samples. Probiotic properties such as tolerance to low pH, bile, sodium chloride, lysozyme, antibiotic susceptibility, cell surface hydrophobicity, and antimicrobial activity were determined. (3) Results: Ten different isolates were examined to study their probiotic potential. In this study, Lactobacillus brevis was isolated and showed most of the probiotic properties, such as10% sodium chloride tolerance, 1% bile tolerance, growth in pH 2, and antimicrobial activity against E. coli, S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, and P. aeruginosa. Formation of biofilm by Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was also inhibited by cell free extracts of L. brevis, which reveals its therapeutic relevance. In additio... Read More

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Probiotics are non-pathogenic microorganisms that can interact with the gastrointestinal microbiota. They have numerous beneficial health effects that include enhancement of the host immune response, antiallergic, antimicrobial, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory properties. Probiotics are capable of restoring the impaired microbiome of a dysbiotic gut. They can be isolated from different environments. However, it is frequently suggested that probiotics for human use should come from human sources. The objective of this study was to isolate and characterize novel probiotic strains from the saliva and feces of healthy human individuals. To meet the criteria for probiotic attributes, the isolates were subjected to numerous standard morphological and biochemical tests. These tests included Gram staining, catalase tests, antibiotic susceptibility testing, hemolytic and antagonistic evaluation, tolerance tests involving temperature, NaCl levels, pH and bile salts, adherence ability assays, and genotypic characterization involving 16S rRNA gene sequencing. From 26 saliva and 11 stool sampl... Read More

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Objectives Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer health benefits to the host. Probiotics are currently being recommended and considered for many medical conditions. The Asia-Pacific region contributes to more than 40% of the global industry. Quality of commercial probiotics remains a challenge globally and has been a major concern in various countries in Europe, South Africa, Taiwan, India, Pakistan, and the USA. Research from these countries indicate that the contents do not correspond to the label information in terms of identity, viability, number of microorganisms or purity. The objective of this study is to assess the commercial probiotic bacterial contents and their label accuracy in India. No previous research has been done in this area in India, on commercial probiotics that are sold as pharmaceuticals. Methods A random selection of the most prescribed probiotics for various clinical indications were chosen with a minimum shelf life of 12 months. The probiotics were single and multiple strains and these were evalua... Read More

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Background: Probiotics are a live microbial supplement which improves hosts health by maintaining intestinal microbiota. Lactic acid bacteria strains have been extensively used as probiotics. The health benefits it provides are prevention of gastrointestinal problems, improving host immunity, reducing blood cholesterol level, lowering blood pressure, suppressing pathogenic microorganisms etc. This evidence suggests that probiotics can be used as a therapeutic strategy to improve overall digestive health. Method: The aim of the present study was to isolate lactic acid bacteria with probiotic potential from food samples. Probiotic properties such as tolerance to low pH, bile, sodium chloride, lysozyme, antibiotic susceptibility, cell surface hydrophobicity and antimicrobial activity were determined. Results: Ten different isolates were examined to study their probiotic potential. In this study, Lactobacillus brevis was isolated, it showed most of the probiotic properties like 10% sodium chloride tolerance, 1% bile tolerance, growth in pH 2 and antimicrobial activity against E. coli, S.... Read More

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Background: Probiotics are live microbial cells that are beneficial for human and animal health. Lactobacilli are such a diverse group of bacteria with similar metabolic and physiological characteristics, and constitute important and beneficial gut microflora. During carbohydrate fermentation, lactobacilli produce lactic acid as an end product in metabolism. Hence, lactobacilli have high significance to be used as probiotics in the food industry, because of their acidifying properties. Also, lactobacilli are considered safe, owing to their ubiquitous presence in the food. Many researchers provided evidence for the presence of lactobacilli in milk sources. Thus, the present study aimed to isolate and characterize different lactobacilli strains from milk sources and analyze their probiotic potential. Materials and methods: Forty-one lactobacilli isolates were obtained from raw cow milk. Then, the strains were characterized by morphological identification and biochemical tests. Besides, probiotic potentials were evaluated with the bile tolerance test, antibiotic susceptibility tes... Read More

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Producers of probiotic products are legally required to indicate on the label only the minimum numbers of viable microorganisms at the end of shelf life expressed as colony-forming units (CFUs). Label specifications, however, describe only a fraction of the actual microbiological content of a probiotic formulation. This paper describes the microbiological components of a probiotic product that are not mentioned on the label, such as the actual number of CFUs, the presence of viable cells that cannot generate colonies on agar plates, and the abundance of dead cells. These hidden microbial fractions in probiotic products, the abundance of which may change during the shelf life, can promote biological responses in the host. Therefore, they should not be ignored because they may influence the efficacy and can be relevant for immunocompromised or fragile consumers. In conclusion, we propose the minimum requirements for microbiological characterization of probiotic products to be adopted for label specifications and clinical studies.

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The data on the probiotic cultures used in the manufacture of the probiotic fermented dairy products, the criteria of their selection related to the safety, technology, characteristics and positive effect on consumers' health are presented in the article.The basic properties which the probiotic microorganisms should possess are listed.The physiological effect of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacteria, Striptococcus probiotic strains is described.

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Probiotics are defined as "live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host". The diverse health benefits have contributed to rapid increase in probiotic consumption and in the value of probiotic market, valued at USD 46 billion in 2019. For probiotics to be effective, the correct species/strains should be delivered viable in an adequate dose. The most commonly used methods for species/strain identification are DNA based methods including targeted and non-targeted methods (e.g. high-throughput sequencing, HTS). Using different DNA based methods, previous studies reported several cases of non-compliance in probiotic products. The objectives of this study are to evaluate levels of compliance in probiotic products (presence of all declared species/strains, absence of any contaminants or undeclared species, and meeting the declared minimum viable cell count) and to compare the performance of targeted and non-targeted methods in probiotic authentication. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest study of its kind, testing 182 pro... Read More

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Probiotics are generally live microorganisms which exert beneficial effects on human and animal health by improving the gastrointestinal microflora. Isolation and proper identification of probiotic bacteria are very much important for safe use in food and feed industry. With this perceptive, the aim of the present study was the isolation of probiotic bacteria and their biochemical characterization. In this study, ten probiotic Lactobacillus spp. was isolated and according to their morphological, physiological and biochemical assay, it was observed that all the isolated bacteria were rod shaped, gram positive, catalase negative, non-motile and coagulase positive which are an indicator of typical probiotic bacteria. Carbohydrate fermentation pattern and growth against inhibitory substances viz. pH 3.0, 0.3% bile, 0.1-0.4% phenol and 1-6% NaCl ensured the criteria for identification of the probiotic bacteria. All the isolated bacteria showed excellent growth against low pH (3.0) and bile (0.3%) in a 24 hour period of time. Isolated bacteria were tested for their antimicrobial activity a... Read More

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This study proposes to exploit the in vivo metabolism of two probiotics (

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was not only one of the most popular probiotics, but also one of the most versatile lactic acid bacteria.

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Among the reported probiotic

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The aim of the study is to search and systematize genes associated with the probiotic properties of strains of the genus Lactobacillus, which are symbionts of the gastrointestinal tract of animals. The following purpose were pursued in the study: to establish the molecular features of the probiotic properties of strains of the genus Lactobacillus; to find the genes associated with probiotic properties of Lactobacillus strains; to systematize the genes found according to the molecular characteristics of their products; to characterize these genes, evaluate perspectives of searching for new and using already found ones. Various genomic and proteomic databases were used to search for information on the genetics of probiotic strains. In the course of the study, genes that provide probiotic activity were found, characterized and systematized. These genes are associated with the ability of probiotics to develop in the digestive tract of animals, the ability to attach to the intestinal walls, nutritional characteristics and antipathogenic activity, which manifests in the synthesis of low an... Read More

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The article analyzes the effectiveness of the most studied probiotic strains that are used for prophylactic or therapeutic purposes. The requirements for probiotic microorganisms are described, depending on the form in which they are used. However, their scope most often covers both prevention and treatment of various functional disorders and diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. At the same time, a lot of data has been accumulated on the effectiveness of probiotics for the treatment and prevention of diseases of other organs and organism systems. Most strains are successfully used as dietary supplements, and some of them have found their application in food industry.

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Over the past two decades, the clinical evidence supporting the beneficial effects of probiotics in consumer's health and wellness has increased. Hence, the food and pharmaceutical industries have encouraged the production of different probiotic foods and probiotic strains. So far, nearly all marketed probiotics are from animal (dairy and human subjects) origin; however, other sources are increasingly being reported as promising reservoirs of new potential probiotics. In this last regard, before any possible application, probiotic candidates must be characterized by comprehensive trials. This review aims to provide a contemporary perspective in the evaluation and characterization of probiotics under the probiogenomics context. Typically, probiotic candidates are selected after several in vitro and in vivo trials aimed to determine their suitable resistance to physiological barriers such as simulated digestive conditions, sensitive inhibition of pathogens, adherence to mucus and hemolytic potential, among other properties. However, there is a need for additional research to further ... Read More

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