Topical cream with live lactobacilli modulates the skin microbiome and reduce acne symptoms

Abstract

SummaryThe skin is home to an important part of our commensal microbiota, despite it being a cool, acidic and desiccated environment. Tailored microbiome modulation approaches with, for example probiotics, are highly challenging for this body site. Here we show by next-generating sequencing that Lactobacillus taxa -especially those known to be dominant in the human vagina- are underestimated members of the skin microbiota. Specific Lactobacillus strains were selected in the lab and formulated in a viable form in an oil in water-based topical cream. Facial application by patients with mild-to-moderate acne symptoms was able to reduce inflammatory lesions and comedone formation. This was associated with a temporary modulation of the skin microbiome, including a reduction in relative abundance of staphylococci and an increase in lactobacilli. Skin microbiome modulation by addition of carefully formulated lactobacilli seems to be new therapeutic option to reduce antibiotic use for common acne symptoms.

Axillary Microbiota Compositions from Men and Women in a Tertiary Institution-South East Nigeria: Effects of Deodorants/Antiperspirants on Bacterial Communities

“…For the fact that in this study, we detected Lactobacilli in the axilla of over 82% of females and over 81% of male subjects, though in low relative abundance compared with Corynebacteria and Staphylococci , indicates that Lactobacillus taxa should be considered as part of the normal axillary bacterial community. The female subjects had more relative abundance of Lactobacillus taxa than male subjects, which is consistent with the findings of Lebeer et al, (2019) that found a 10-fold higher relative abundance in women than men.…”

Lysates of a Probiotic, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Can Improve Skin Barrier Function in a Reconstructed Human Epidermis Model

“…The FDA regulates that acceptable limits for total (not pathogenic) microorganisms in cosmetics are 500 colony forming units (cfu) per gram in eye-area products and 1000 cfu/g for other area products [29]. So at this moment, the use of live probiotic strains in cosmetic products must overcome this hurdle while other biotherapeutic approaches beyond cosmetics are on-going with live probiotics [30]. If this hurdle could be mitigated by the amendment of cosmetic regulation, new cosmetics for skin moisturization may be possible.…”

Lactobacilli Have a Niche in the Human Nose

“…The Lactobacillus genus complex (LGC) includes important beneficial taxa in different human body niches (Heeney et al, 2018;Lebeer et al, 2018;Petrova et al, 2015). The bacteria belonging to this genus are known to be rod shaped, fermentative bacteria producing lactic acid from sugar fermentation under (A) Compositional differential abundance of the 30 most prevalent families between the healthy control and CRS samples in the anterior nares.…”