Biospeckle Decorrelation Quantifies the Performance of Alginate-Encapsulated Probiotic Bacteria

Abstract

In recent years, the use of probiotics in food and health has increased so much that usually market offers several functional fermented food or nutraceuticals containing probiotics, often also associated to prebiotics. Both in food industry and in pharmaceutics, it is very important the development and use of methodologies that quickly allow a precise overview about the microbial population present in a specific biological matrix, and to monitor over time any changes that it may undergo. In this work, we propose bio-speckle decorrelation as a tool for the fast evaluation of the effectiveness of microencapsulation as a preservation system. Although speckle grains are often treated as an impairment for imaging, they represent a precious source of information. Such information is rich enough to characterize bacterial dynamics in a fast and simple way suitable for applications in food science and industry. In fact, here we show that through bio-speckle decorrelation it is possible to quantify the shelf-time of alginate-encapsulated probiotic bacteria and their survival rate under simulated gastro-intestinal conditions.

Optimal conditions for the encapsulation of Weissella cibaria JW15 using alginate and chicory root and evaluation of capsule stability in a simulated gastrointestinal system

“…Alginate can shrink in acidic environments, such as the human stomach, and can dissolve in basic ones, such as the intestines (Mandracchia et al., ). This property has proven valuable for the efficient delivery of probiotic bacteria directly into the intestinal flora.…”

“…Nonetheless, bacterial branches exhibit diverse behaviors and affinities. The reliability of alginate for bacterial confinement and delivery should always be checked for different bacterial species (Mandracchia et al., ). Therefore, to determine the best capsule form for intestinal targeting, we investigated the degradation of various capsules in GF and IF within a simulated GI system.…”

Pyro-Electrification of Freestanding Polymer Sheets: A New Tool for Cation-Free Manipulation of Cell Adhesion in vitro

“…The fact that biofilms have a multidisciplinary impact that includes environmental, industrial, and clinical characteristics, and that over 60% of all human bacterial infections and up to 80% of all chronic infections are related to bacterial biofilms, is of fundamental importance in assessing how different environmental factors may affect the bacterial vitality. The cellular mechanisms underlying microbial biofilm formation and behavior are beginning to be understood and are targets for novel specific intervention strategies to control bacteria colonies formation in different fields and in particular for the food-processing environment (Dickson and Koohmaraie, 1989; Sahm et al, 1994; Linke and Goldman, 2011; Bianco et al, 2017; Bruslind, 2017; Mandracchia et al, 2019).…”

Motility-based label-free detection of parasites in bodily fluids using holographic speckle analysis and deep learning

“…As a label-free 3D imaging modality that is robust to light scattering and optically dense media, this approach can potentially be employed to study motile microorganisms within various fluid environments in a high-throughput manner and benefit biomedical research. As another potential application, a speckle decorrelation approach that is similar to the approach demonstrated by Mandracchia et al 49 , may be adopted for our platform to measure, e.g., viability of probiotic bacteria in different environments, which may be useful for, e.g., the food industry.…”