New clues for postbiotics to improve host health: a review from the perspective of function and mechanisms

Abstract

Strain activity and stability severely limit the beneficial effects of probiotics in modulating host health. Postbiotics have emerged as a promising alternative as they can provide similar or even enhanced efficacy to probiotics, even under inactivated conditions. This review introduces the ingredients, preparation, and identification techniques of postbiotics, focusing on the comparison of the advantages and limitations between probiotics and postbiotics based on their mechanisms and applications. Inactivation treatment is the most significant difference between postbiotics and probiotics. We highlight the use of emerging technologies to inactivate probiotics, optimize process conditions to maintain the activity of postbiotics, or scale up their production. Postbiotics has high stability which can overcome unfavorable factors, such as easy inactivation and difficult colonization of probiotics after entering the intestine, and are rapidly activated, allowing continuous and rapid optimization of the intestinal microecological environment. They provide unique mechanisms, and multiple targets act on the gut‐organ axis, co‐providing new clues for the study of the biological functions of postbiotics. We summarize the mechanisms of action of inactivated lactic acid bacteria, highlighting that the NF‐κB and MAPK pathways can be used as immune targeting pathways for postbiotic modulation of host health. Generally, we believe that as the classification, composition, and efficacy mechanism of postbiotics become clearer, it will be more widely used in food, medicine, and other fields, greatly enriching the dimensions of food innovation.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Identification of the Microbiota in Coconut Water, Kefir, Coconut Water Kefir and Coconut Water Kefir-Fermented Sourdough Using Culture-Dependent Techniques and Illumina–MiSeq Sequencing

“…Kefir grains, as symbiotic clusters of bacteria and yeast, hold significant importance in fermented food production due to their ability to produce lactic acid, which contributes to numerous health benefits including improved gut health and immune function [9]. The fermentation process mediated by kefir grains results in the synthesis of bioactive compounds and probiotics, enhancing the nutritional value and therapeutic potential of kefir [10]. Kefir, a diverse ecosystem, harbours numerous LAB, yeast, and acetic acid bacteria (AAB) species, contributing to its complexity [11][12][13].…”