Probiotics as Beneficial Dietary Supplements to Prevent and Treat Cardiovascular Diseases: Uncovering Their Impact on Oxidative Stress

Abstract

The gut microbiota, the ecosystem formed by a wide symbiotic community of nonpathogenic microorganisms that are present in the distal part of the human gut, plays a prominent role in the normal physiology of the organism. The gut microbiota’s imbalance, gut dysbiosis, is directly related to the origin of various processes of acute or chronic dysfunction in the host. Therefore, the ability to intervene in the gut microbiota is now emerging as a possible tactic for therapeutic intervention in various diseases. From this perspective, evidence is growing that a functional dietary intervention with probiotics, which maintain or restore beneficial bacteria of the digestive tract, represents a promising therapeutic strategy for interventions in cardiovascular diseases and also reduces the risk of their occurrence. In the present work, we review the importance of maintaining the balance of the intestinal microbiota to prevent or combat such processes as arterial hypertension or endothelial dysfunction, which underlie many cardiovascular disorders. We also review how the consumption of probiotics can improve autonomic control of cardiovascular function and provide beneficial effects in patients with heart failure. Among the known effects of probiotics is their ability to decrease the generation of reactive oxygen species and, therefore, reduce oxidative stress. Therefore, in this review, we specifically focus on this antioxidant capacity and its relationship with the beneficial cardiovascular effects described for probiotics.

Oxidative Stress and Dementia in Alzheimer’s Patients: Effects of Synbiotic Supplementation

“…In parallel, there is growing evidence that disturbances along the "brain-gut-microbiota axis" are involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases enhancing inflammation at the gut, systemic, and central nervous system (CNS) levels [15,18]. In this context, recent data have shown the beneficial effects of probiotic supplementation on intestinal epithelial integrity, immunomodulation, oxidative stress, and even procognition [15,19,20]. However, the role of safe and inexpensive nutraceutical synbiotic kefir (a synergistic mixture of prebiotics and probiotics) in AD is still not documented [15,20,21].…”

Protective Effects of Short-Chain Fatty Acids on Endothelial Dysfunction Induced by Angiotensin II

“…Endothelial dysfunction is typified by a diminution of availability of nitric oxide (NO), accompanied by high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), a stimulation in the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines along with a rise in the expression of adhesion molecules (Cai and Harrison, 2000;Hadi et al, 2005;Touyz and Briones, 2011). Endothelial dysfunction, defined as a loss of endothelium to induce vasodilatation, is an earliest indicator of development of cardiovascular disease and appears in the onset and during the progression of hypertension, atherosclerosis, cardiac ischemia, or stroke (Versari et al, 2009;Dharmashankar and Widlansky, 2010;Gkaliagkousi et al, 2015;Vasquez et al, 2019).…”

Research Article <i>Lactobacillus</i> <i>crispatus</i> protects against bacterial vaginosis

“…There is increasing evidence for the health benefits of probiotics, including enhancement of the immune response (Khalesi et al, 2018), a protective role against allergy (Sharma and Im, 2018;Szari and Quinn, 2019), removal of chemical contaminants and ability to reduce the toxicity of contaminants (Feng et al, 2018;Wochner et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2019), improving intestinal health by modulating the number and diversity of beneficial gut microbiota, and reducing symptoms associated with various gastrointestinal disorders (Ferrario et al, 2014;Ford et al, 2014;Feng et al, 2018;Irwin et al, 2018;Vasquez et al, 2019), hepatoprotective effects (Meng et al, 2018), cardiovascular disease prevention by improving blood cholesterol levels and blood lipid profile, reducing blood pressure and hypertension (Guo et al, 2011;Khalesi et al, 2014;Sun and Buys, 2015;Vasquez et al, 2019), improving blood glucose tolerance and diabetes control (Sun and Buys, 2016;Plows et al, 2019), improved mental health (Inserra et al, 2018;Bruce-Keller et al, 2018;Dutta et al, 2019), and cancer prevention (Nazir et al, 2018;Scott et al, 2018;Ma et al, 2019). However, in order to improve the probability of these beneficial effects, probiotic candidate strains should be submitted to selection assays, which can be crucial to promulgate the therapeutic effect in the host.…”