The Role of Probiotics and Prebiotics in Inducing Gut Immunity

Abstract

The gut immune system is influenced by many factors, including dietary components and commensal bacteria. Nutrients that affect gut immunity and strategies that restore a healthy gut microbial community by affecting the microbial composition are being developed as new therapeutic approaches to treat several inflammatory diseases. Although probiotics (live microorganisms) and prebiotics (food components) have shown promise as treatments for several diseases in both clinical and animal studies, an understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind the direct and indirect effects on the gut immune response will facilitate better and possibly more efficient therapy for diseases. In this review, we will first describe the concept of prebiotics, probiotics, and symbiotics and cover the most recently well-established scientific findings regarding the direct and indirect mechanisms by which these dietary approaches can influence gut immunity. Emphasis will be placed on the relationship of diet, the microbiota, and the gut immune system. Second, we will highlight recent results from our group, which suggest a new dietary manipulation that includes the use of nutrient products (organic selenium and Lithothamnium muelleri) and probiotics (Saccharomyces boulardii UFMG 905 and Bifidobacterium sp.) that can stimulate and manipulate the gut immune response, inducing intestinal homeostasis. Furthermore, the purpose of this review is to discuss and translate all of this knowledge into therapeutic strategies and into treatment for extra-intestinal compartment pathologies. We will conclude by discussing perspectives and molecular advances regarding the use of prebiotics or probiotics as new therapeutic strategies that manipulate the microbial composition and the gut immune responses of the host.

Probiotics as regulators of inflammation: A review

“…This evidence that butyrate also has important anti-inflammatory properties highlights the potential of using a carefully selected mixture of probiotic strains and compatible prebiotics (i.e. to formulate synbiotics) to maximize therapeutic efficacy [33].…”

Beneficial modulation of the gut microbiota

“…Prebiotics have most frequently been employed with a view to stimulating the growth of either lactobacilli or bifidobacteria, with many studies focussing on inulin [78][79][80], oligofructose [81,82] or fructooligosaccharides [83,84]. There is a substantial body of evidence linking prebiotic consumption to human health benefits through modulation of the gut microbiota, with research in this area having been the subject of a number of recent reviews [85][86][87]. In one particularly notable recent study, it was observed that supplementing the murine diet with SCFAs or fructooligosaccharides caused a shift in microbiota composition which strongly correlated with beneficial changes in body weight, adiposity and glucose control.…”

Role of secretory IgA in the mucosal sensing of commensal bacteria

“…[33][34][35] When considering the epithelial barrier function, in vitro exposure of reconstituted polarized Caco-2 epithelial cell monolayers to commensal strains either alone or coated with SIgA leads to a completely different pattern of a) cytokine/chemokine secretion, b) pIgR expression, and c) adhesion, indicating that the nature of the bacterium and the association with the antibody results in different sensing by the epithelial cells in the absence of any other partners. 36 While we speculated that commensal bacteria associated with SIgA would have a reduced effect on the reconstituted epithelial layer through mechanisms similar to immune exclusion, it happened that the presence of SIgA increased the bacterial anchoring at the apical surface of IECs.…”