Week 1 Flashcards
Where does the word probiotic come from?
Probios = for life
What is the definition of probiotics?
Live microorganisms which when administered in adequte amounts, confer a benefecial health effect on the host
What was the work of Elie Metchikoff?
Residing bacteria in the gut have the ability to cause disease.
Gut bacteria can potentially promote health of the host
In 1908 he was awarded the Nobel prize for medicine for his studies on cellular immunity
Who played a vital role in the discovery of probiotics?
Elie Metchnikoff
How many microbes are in a healthy gut?
10^14 microbes - weighs around 1kg
How many more genes are expressed in gut microbiome compared to human genome?
150 times - one of the most metabolically active areas of the body
What are bacteria that live in the gut microbiome and are opportunistic parasites?
Staphylococci
Proteus sp
Ps aeruginosa
What are bacteria that live in the gut microbiome and are purely benefical?
Lactobacilli
Bifidobacteria
What are bacteria that live in the gut microbiome and are opportunistic parasites and beneficial?
Streptococci
Enterococci
Clostridial Cluster IX
What is the main gene used for bacterial identification?
The 16S ribosomal RNA gene
What is the overview of 16S ribosomal RNA gene for bacterial identification?
Ribosomal RNA is the most abundant form of cellular RNA (~80% total)
Multi-copy gene
rRNA present in all life forms, slowly evolving, good for molecular taxonomy
Complex secondary structure with conserved and variable regions
Large database of known rRNA sequences
What is the bacteria in Yakult?
Lactobacillus casei Shirota
How big is Yakult company?
Serves 26 million people in 31 countries around the world
80,000 Yakult ladies deliever Yakult products directly to their customers
What bacteria is used in Actimel?
Lactobaxillis casei Immunitas
What is example of Lactobacilli in probiotics?
Lactobacillus acidophilus
Lactobacillus rhamnosus
Lactobacillus casei
Lactobacillus bulgaricus
Lactobacillus reuter
What are examples of Bifidobacteria in probiotics?
Bifidobacterium bifidum
Bifidobacterium longum
Bifidobacterium breve
Bifidobacterium lactis
What are examples of yeast probiotics?
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Saccharomyces boulardiii
What are examples of other bacteria used in probiotics?
Streptococcus thermophilus
Bacillus subtilis
Enterococcus faecalis
Escherichia coli Nissle 1917
What is requred in probiotics?
Contain sufficient live, active ‘good’ bacteria
Be stable and viable for the life of the product
Survive the stomach acids
Survive exposure to bile acids
Provide health benefits
Be safe and amenable for human consumption
What are some of the probiotic health claims?
Stimulation of host immune system
Aids digestion
Prevention of colon cancer
Reduction of antibiotic associated diarrhoea
Protection against heavy metal toxicity
What is an example of probiotic disinfectant?
Aggie’s probiotic cleanining products - disinfectant kills bacteria so cant be used in context
What is an example of probiotic hygine product?
Probiotic aftershave lotion - aftershave needs to be antispetic so cant work
What was the practical used to see is probiotics help reduce eczema?
Randomised double blind placebo controlled clinical trial –Finland
159 pregnant women with family history of atopic disease given Lactobacillus GG 2-4 weeks prior to birth
Probiotics given to babies until 6 months.
What was the impact of using probiotics in reducing eczema on babies?
At both 2 and 4 years they were protected from atopic eczema though the effect wore off
As infants atopic eczema increased in the probiotic group but still lower than placebo group
What was the experiment for seeing that probiotic and inflammatory bowl disease?
Gionchetti et. al. – randomised double blind placebo controlled clinical trial with pouchitis patients
Pouchitis = inflammation/infection of pouch
40 patients receievd a probiotic mix for 9 months
What was in the probiotic mix used as potential treatment for inflammatory bowl disease?
One strain of Streptococcus thermophilus,
Three strains of Bifidobacterium
Four strains of Lactobacillus
Each sachet contains 450 billion live probiotic
What were the results for using probiotics as a treatment for inflammatory bowel disease?
100% of the control group suffered relapse
Only 15% of patients given probiotics suffered relapse
What is the use of probiotics as a therapeutic treatment of COVID-19?
70 hospitalized COVID patients (aged 50-70) had fever, cough, headache, diarrhoea and required oxygen were enrolled in the study
42 of these were given hydroxychloroquinone and antibiotics alone or in combination
28 received a multistrain probiotic in addition to the standard treatment
Sivomixx (2400 billion/day)
What were the results of the probiotics as a therapeutic treatment of COVID-19?
Within 72 hours all patients treated with bacteriotherapy showed remission of diarrhea and other symptoms as compared to less than half of the not supplement group
Repritory rates were eightfold lower in patients recieving probiotics
Lower mortality rates and reduced transffered to ICU
What is the believed benefit of probiotic bacteria?
Prevention of cytokine storm
What is cytokine storm?
Cytokine storm and cytokine release syndrome are life-threatening systemic inflammatory syndromes involving elevated levels of circulating cytokines and immune-cell hyperactivation
What are prebiotics?
A prebiotic is a selectively fermented ingredient that results in specific changes in the composition and/or activity of the gastrointestinal microbiota, thus conferring benefit(s) upon host health
What is the requirements for prebiotics?
Resists gastric acidity, hydrolysis by mammalian enzymes
and absorption;
Is fermented by the intestinal microbiota
Stimulates selectively the growth and/or activity of intestinal Bacteria associated with health
What are examples of prebiotics?
Fructo-oligosaccharides:Inulin and oligofructose
(FOS)
Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS)
Soybean oligosaccharides
Lactulose, Lactosucrose
Xylo-oligosaccharides
Isomalto-oligosaccharides
What are some prebiotic health claims?
Stimulate the growth of ‘good’ bacteria in the gut
Improve the immune system
Reduce intestinal infections
Improvement of bowl function
Reduce gut inflammation
What is Bergamot?
Citrus bergmia Risso - peel was hypothesised to be a prebiotic
How was the prebiotic effect of Bergamot tested?
Gibson Model of Human colon
What was the prebiotic effct of bergamot oligosaccharide?
Increase in symbiotic bifidobacteria and lactobacilli
Decrease in oppotunistic bacteroides
How does bergamot oligocaccharide compare to fructo-oligosaccharides?
BOS greater increase in symbiotic bifidobacteria and lactobacilli compared to FOS
BOS greater decrease in bacteriods compared to FOS
Overal higher score on prebioitc index - FOS - 6 and BOS 7
What are synbiotics?
Probiotics + Prebiotics
How many people does sepsis kill?
Sepsis in early infancy results in 1 million deaths worldwide each year
No effective prevention measures available
What was the study parameters to study the impact of synbiotics on reduction in sepsis deaths?
Randomised double blind placebo controlled trial
4556 infants were recruited into the study (with no sign of sepsis)
Synbiotic capsules(L. plantarum 109 + Fructooligosaccharide 150 mg)
Synbiotic or placebo given for the 7 days
Output monitored for 60 days
What were the results of using synbiotics in the reduction of infections?
Dramatic decline in death and sepsis
Steep decline in death diarrhaea cases
Also decline in other local infections
What is the future of probiotics?
Stricter regulation on probiotic claims
Evidence based market product
Probiotics designed for specific benefit- engineered -‘SMART probiotics’ or next generation probiotics
Understanding of the probiotic function
What is taxonomy?
The science of grouping together organisms that share properties
Taxonomy tools are important for understanding prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbial diversity.
What is classical taxonomy?
Taxonomy that uses the phenotype e.g. shape, metabolic activity, pathogenicity and nutritional requirements.
What is molecular taxonomy?
Molecular taxonomy (Modern)-uses the genotype e.g. rRNA and genome information.