Effects of the Probiotic Activity of Bacillus subtilis DSM 29784 in Cultures and Feeding Stuff

Next generation probiotics: Engineering live biotherapeutics

The population dynamics of the human microbiome have been associated with inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, obesity, autoimmune diseases, and many other human disease states. An emerging paradigm in treatment is the administration of live engineered organisms, also called next-generation probiotics. However, the efficacy of these microbial therapies can be limited by the organism's overall performance in the harsh and nutrient-limited environment of the gut. In this review, we summarize the current state of the art use of bacterial and yeast strains as probiotics, highlight the recent development of genetic tools for engineering new therapeutic functions in these organisms, and report on the latest therapeutic applications of engineered probiotics, including recent clinical trials. We also discuss the supplementation of prebiotics as a method of manipulating the microbiome and improving the overall performance of engineered live biotherapeutics.

Metabolic profiling of bacterial co-cultures reveals intermicrobiome interactions and dominant species

In animal production, the use of probiotic microorganisms has increased since the ban on antibiotic growth promoters in 2006. The added microorganisms interact with the microbiome of the animals, whereby the probiotic activity is not fully understood. Several microorganisms of the genus Bacillus are already known for their probiotic activity and are applied as feed supplements to increase the health status of the animals. They are thought to interact with Escherichia coli, one of the most abundant bacteria in the animal gut. In biotechnological applications, co-culturing enables the regulation of bacterial interaction or the production of target metabolites. The basic principles of multi-imaging high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) with upstream cultivation were further developed to analyze the metabolic profiles of three axenic bacilli cultures compared to their co-cultures with E. coli DSM 18039 (K12). The comparative profiling visualized bacteria's metabolic interactions and showed how the presence of E. coli affects the metabolite formation of bacilli. The characteristic metabolic profile images showed not only the influence of microbiomes but also of inoculation, cultivation and nutrients on the commercial probiotic. The formation of antimicrobially active metabolites, detected via three different planar bioassays, was influenced by the presence of other microorganisms, especially in the probiotic. This first application of multi-imaging HPTLC in the field of co-culturing enabled visualization of metabolic interactions of bacteria via their produced chemical as well as bioactive metabolite profiles. The metabolic profiling provided evidence of bacterial interactions, intermicrobiome influences and dominant species in the co-culture.

Protective Mechanism of a Layer-by-Layer-Assembled Artificial Cell Wall on Probiotics

Constructing an artificial cell wall (AFCW) based on the layer-by-layer assembly of polymer films to protect probiotics in harsh conditions is highly desirable. Early findings showed that encapsulating yeast cells by an AFCW improved the cell viability by 50% in antibiotic solution. However, the detailed molecular interaction mechanism remains unclear by experiments. Herein, two ciprofloxacin (CPFX) permeation models, including models 1 and 2 that were, respectively, composed of just the yeast cell membrane and the AFCW coating cell membrane, were investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. The free energy profiles delineating the permeation process of CPFX reveal that the permeation of CPFX through the cell membrane of model 2 is more difficult than through that of model 1. The analysis results show that the AFCW leads to two sharp increases in free energy barriers, amounting to 8.9 and 6.2 kcal/mol, thereby reducing the penetrating rate of CPFX into the cell membrane. Moreover, decomposition of the potentials of mean force into free energy components suggested that the electrostatic interactions of CPFX with the AFCW predominantly contributed to the high free energy barriers. The current results provide a good understanding of the protective mechanism of the self-assembled cell walls against CPFX and help to design other AFCWs.