Probiotics and Gut Microbiota in Obesity: Myths and Realities of a New Health Revolution

Modulation of the gut microbiome and Firmicutes phylum reduction by a nutraceutical blend in the obesity mouse model and overweight humans: A double-blind clinical trial

Overweight and obesity are closely linked to gut dysbiosis/dysmetabolism and disrupted De-Ritis ratio [aspartate aminotransferase (AST)/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) ratio], which may contribute to chronic noncommunicable diseases onset. Concurrently, extensive research explores nutraceuticals, and health-enhancing supplements, for disease prevention or treatment. Thus, sedentary overweight volunteers were double-blind randomized into two groups: Novel Nutraceutical_(S) (without silymarin) and Novel Nutraceutical (with silymarin). Experimental formulations were orally administered twice daily over 180 consecutive days. We evaluated fecal gut microbiota, based on partial 16S rRNA sequences, biochemistry and endocrine markers, steatosis biomarker (AST/ALT ratio), and anthropometric parameters. Post-supplementation, only the Novel Nutraceutical group reduced Clostridium clostridioforme (Firmicutes), Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio (F/B ratio), and De-Ritis ratio, while elevating Bacteroides caccae and Bacteroides uniformis (Bacteroidetes) in Brazilian sedentary overweight volunteers after 180 days. In summary, the results presented here allow us to suggest the gut microbiota as the action mechanism of the Novel Nutraceutical promoting metabolic hepatic recovery in obesity/overweight non-drug interventions.

Role of probiotics in managing various human diseases, from oral pathology to cancer and gastrointestinal diseases

The imbalance of microbial composition and diversity in favor of pathogenic microorganisms combined with a loss of beneficial gut microbiota taxa results from factors such as age, diet, antimicrobial administration for different infections, other underlying medical conditions, etc. Probiotics are known for their capacity to improve health by stimulating the indigenous gut microbiota, enhancing host immunity resistance to infection, helping digestion, and carrying out various other functions. Concurrently, the metabolites produced by these microorganisms, termed postbiotics, which include compounds like bacteriocins, lactic acid, and hydrogen peroxide, contribute to inhibiting a wide range of pathogenic bacteria. This review presents an update on using probiotics in managing and treating various human diseases, including complications that may emerge during or after a COVID-19 infection.

Bovine milk osteopontin improved intestinal health of pregnant rats fed a high-fat diet through improving bile acid metabolism

The main purpose of the current study was to investigate the ameliorative effects of bovine milk osteopontin (bmOPN) on the gut dysfunction of pregnant rats fed a high-fat diet (HFD). Bovine milk osteopontin was supplemented at a dose of 6 mg/kg body weight. Bovine milk osteopontin supplementation during pregnancy reduced colonic inflammation of HFD dams, and it also increased the colonic expression of ZO-1 and claudin-4 of HFD dams. Bovine milk osteopontin significantly enriched the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes, whereas it decreased Proteobacteria, Helicobacteraceae, and Desulfovibrionaceae in feces of HFD dams. The levels of isobutyric acid and pentanoic acid in the HFD + bmOPN group were higher than that of the HFD group. Functional predication analysis of microbial genomes revealed that bmOPN supplementation to HFD pregnancies changed 4 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways including bile acid biosynthesis. Further, bmOPN enriched hepatic taurochenodeoxycholic acid and tauroursodeoxycholic acid plus taurohyodeoxycholic acid in the gut of HFD maternal rats. Our findings suggested that bmOPN improved the gut health of HFD pregnant rats partially through modulating bile acid biosynthesis.

A Newly Synbiotic Combination Alleviates Obesity by Modulating the Gut Microbiota-Fat Axis and Inhibiting the Hepatic TLR4/NF-κB Signaling Pathway

SCOPE

Obesity has been recognized as a worldwide public health crisis, this is accompanied by dysregulation of the intestinal microbiota and upregulation of liver steatosis and adipose inflammation. Synbiotic as a novel alternative therapy for obesity have recently gained much attention.

METHODS

This study innovatively research the anti-obesity properties of a newly synbiotic composed of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium infantis and konjac glucomannan oligosaccharides.

RESULTS

The synbiotic treatment can reduce body weight, fat mass, blood sugar, liver steatosis and adipose inflammation in obesity mice fed by high-fat diet (HFD). Meanwhile, synbiotic treatment activated brown adipose tissue and improve energy, glucose and lipid metabolism. In addition, synbiotic treatment not solely enhanced the protection of intestinal barrier, but also ameliorated gut microbiota dysbiosis directly by enhancing beneficial microbes and reducing potentially harmful bacteria. Furthermore, the microbiome phenotype and functional prediction showed that synbiotic treatment can improve the gut microbiota functions involving inflammatory state, immune response, metabolism and pathopoiesia.

CONCLUSION

The synbiotic may be an effective candidate treatment strategy for the clinical prevention and treatment of obesity and other associated metabolic diseases such as hyperlipidemia, nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases by alleviating inflammatory response, regulating energy metabolism and maintaining the balance of intestinal microecology.

Salidroside protects mice from high-fat diet-induced obesity by modulating the gut microbiota

Obesity is a systemic disease with multisystem inflammation associated with gut dysbiosis. Salidroside (SAL) which is a major glycoside extracted from Rhodiola rosea L. has a wide range of pharmacological effects, but the role of gut microbiota in the protective effects of SAL on obesity has not been studied. Herein, we aim to explore whether SAL could ameliorate high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity in mice by modulating microbiota. Results showed that oral treatment with SAL alleviated HFD-induced obesity in mice as evidenced by body weight and fat weight. SAL supplementation effectively attenuated fat accumulation, lipid synthesis genes expression, liver inflammation, and metabolic endotoxemia. In addition, SAL treatment alleviated intestinal damage and increased the expression of mucin protein (Mucin-2) and tight junction (TJ) proteins (Occludin and Zonula Occludens-1). 16S rRNA sequencing analysis revealed that the gut microbiota of obese mice was also partly improved by SAL via restoring the microbial community structure and diversity. A fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) study was designed to verify the causality. Compared with fecal transplantation (FM) from the HFD-treated mice, FM from the SAL-treated mice significantly mitigate the symptoms of obese mice, including decreasing body weight, fat accumulation, and attenuating pathological damage in the gut. Thus, SAL could be a remarkable candidate to prevent obesity.

Intestinal Region-Dependent Alterations of Toll-Like Receptor 4 Expression in Myenteric Neurons of Type 1 Diabetic Rats

Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) can activate pro-inflammatory cascades in the gastrointestinal tract. Our aim was to determine TLR4 expression in myenteric neurons of different gut regions using a type 1 diabetic model. Ten weeks after the onset of hyperglycemia, myenteric whole-mount preparations from the duodenum, ileum and colon of streptozotocin-induced diabetic, insulin-treated diabetic and control rats were prepared for TLR4/peripherin double-labelling fluorescent immunohistochemistry. Immunogold electron microscopy was applied to evaluate TLR4 expression in the myenteric perikaryon and neuropil. Tissue TLR4 levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In controls, the number and proportion of the TLR4-immunoreactive myenteric neurons showed an increasing tendency to aboral direction. These values were significantly higher in diabetics compared to controls in the duodenum and ileum, but were significantly lower in the colon. In diabetics, the distribution of TLR4-labelling gold particles between the perikaryon and neuropil of myenteric neurons varied in a different way by intestinal segment. TLR4 tissue concentration changed only in the diabetic duodenum, and it decreased in muscle/myenteric plexus-containing homogenates, while it increased in mucosa/submucosa/submucous plexus-containing samples relative to controls. Insulin had beneficial effects on TLR4 expression. These findings support that chronic hyperglycemia has segment-specific effects on TLR4 expression, contributing to gastrointestinal disorders in diabetic patients.

Analysis of correlations between gut microbiota, stool short chain fatty acids, calprotectin and cardiometabolic risk factors in postmenopausal women with obesity: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Microbiota and its metabolites are known to regulate host metabolism. In cross-sectional study conducted in postmenopausal women we aimed to assess whether the microbiota, its metabolites and gut barrier integrity marker are correlated with cardiometabolic risk factors and if microbiota is different between obese and non-obese subjects.

METHODS

We analysed the faecal microbiota of 56 obese, postmenopausal women by means of 16S rRNA analysis. Stool short chain fatty acids, calprotectin and anthropometric, physiological and biochemical parameters were correlates to microbiome analyses.

RESULTS

Alpha-diversity was inversely correlated with lipopolysaccharide (Rho = - 0.43, FDR P (Q) = 0.004). Bray-Curtis distance based RDA revealed that visceral fat and waist circumference had a significant impact on metabolic potential (P = 0.003). Plasma glucose was positively correlated with the Coriobacteriaceae (Rho = 0.48, Q = 0.004) and its higher taxonomic ranks, up to phylum (Actinobacteria, Rho = 0.46, Q = 0.004). At the metabolic level, the strongest correlation was observed for the visceral fat (Q < 0.15), especially with the DENOVOPURINE2-PWY, PWY-841 and PWY0-162 pathways. Bacterial abundance was correlated with SCFAs, thus some microbiota-glucose relationships may be mediated by propionate, as indicated by the significant average causal mediation effect (ACME): Lachnospiraceae (ACME 1.25, 95%CI (0.10, 2.97), Firmicutes (ACME 1.28, 95%CI (0.23, 3.83)) and Tenericutes (ACME - 0.39, 95%CI (- 0.87, - 0.03)). There were significant differences in the distribution of phyla between this study and Qiita database (P < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

Microbiota composition and metabolic potential are associated with some CMRF and fecal SCFAs concentration in obese postmenopausal women. There is no unequivocal relationship between fecal SCFAs and the marker of intestinal barrier integrity and CMRF. Further studies with appropriately matched control groups are warranted to look for causality between SCFAs and CMRF.