Assessment of Pb(II), Cd(II), and Al(III) Removal Capacity of Bacteria from Food and Gut Ecological Niches: Insights into Biodiversity to Limit Intestinal Biodisponibility of Toxic Metals

Abstract

Toxic metals (such as lead, cadmium, and, to a lesser extent, aluminum) are detrimental to health when ingested in food or water or when inhaled. By interacting with heavy metals, gut and food-derived microbes can actively and/or passively modulate (by adsorption and/or sequestration) the bioavailability of these toxins inside the gut. This “intestinal bioremediation” involves the selection of safe microbes specifically able to immobilize metals. We used inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to investigate the in vitro ability of 225 bacteria to remove the potentially harmful trace elements lead, cadmium, and aluminum. Interspecies and intraspecies comparisons were performed among the Firmicutes (mostly lactic acid bacteria, including Lactobacillus spp., with some Lactococcus, Pediococcus, and Carnobacterium representatives), Actinobacteria, and Proteobacteria. The removal of a mixture of lead and cadmium was also investigated. Although the objective of the study was not to elucidate the mechanisms of heavy metal removal for each strain and each metal, we nevertheless identified promising candidate bacteria as probiotics for the intestinal bioremediation of Pb(II) and Cd(II).

A Unique Enhancement of Propionibacterium freudenreichii’s Ability to Remove Pb(II) from Aqueous Solution by Tween 80 Treatment

“…We identified an innovative treatment that strongly enhanced P. freudenreichii ’s usually poor ability to remove Pb(II) from aqueous solution. Indeed, an earlier study showed that all the screened strains of propionibacteria were poorly able to remove various heavy metal ions [ 26 ]. Here, we found that exposure to Tween ® 80 was associated with a strong enhancement of P. freudenreichii ’s removal ability, with high absolute values.…”

“…Formerly, Pf CIRM BIA-1; Pf CIRM BIA-9; Pf CIRM BIA-118; Pf CIRM BIA-119; Pf CIRM BIA-121; Pf CIRM BIA-122; Pf CIRM BIA-123; Pf CIRM BIA-124; Pf CIRM BIA-125; Pf CIRM BIA-129; Pf CIRM BIA-134; Pf CIRM BIA-135; Pf CIRM BIA-138; Pf CIRM BIA-139; Pf CIRM BIA-456; Pf CIRM BIA-508; Pf CIRM BIA-512; Pf CIRM BIA-513; Pf CIRM BIA-514; Pf CIRM BIA-516; Pf CIRM BIA-527. Strains P.f 125 (ITG P14) and P. f 129 (ITG P20) were provided by the Centre International Interprofessionnel de l’Economie Laitière (CNIEL), (ii) three lactic acid bacteria from the DSM collections, ( Lactobacillus plantarum DSM 13273, Lactobacillus diolivorans DSM 14421 and Pediococcus acidilactici DSM 19927) which that have been well characterized in comparative genomics studies [ 43 ], (iii) three Escherichia coli from the ECOR reference collection, and three Serratia marcescens laboratory strains (DB10, Jub9 and NS38) and clinical isolates (nine strains from Bifidobacterium species B. adolescentis FPL 19157; B. bifidum FPL 19147 and FPL 19319; B. breve FPL 19317 FPL 19318; B. lactis FPL 19315; FPL 19316 and Bb12; B. longum FPL 19312; FPL 19313 and Morinaga, and four Cutibacterium acnes strains FPL 19161; FPL 19293; FPL 19294; FPL 19295) sourced from either fecal samples of human origin (Faculty of Pharmacy of Lille (FPL) collection, University of Lille [ 26 ]) or as re-isolates from commercial probiotic bifidobacteria ( B. lactis Bb12 and B. longum Morinaga). For all strains, the species was confirmed using MALDI-TOF.…”

“…However, we recently screened more than 200 strains of lactic acid bacteria, bifidobacteria, and propionibacteria for their ability to potentially bioremediate Pb, cadmium (Cd), and aluminum (Al); none of the 20 P. freudenreichii strains removed 25 ppm Cd, Al, or Pb effectively. In contrast, some Lactobacillus strains were strong Pb chelators and removed up to 80% of the metal from a 25 ppm solution whereas other Lactobacillus strains could not remove more than 10% of the initial amount of metal [ 26 ].…”

Functional Properties and Antimicrobial Activity from Lactic Acid Bacteria as Resources to Improve the Health and Welfare of Honey Bees

“…Recently, the next generation of probiotics has attracted increasing attention [ 103 , 109 , 110 ] for their ability to alleviate HMs toxicity, although, most of the studies have been performed with an in vitro digestion or animal model. [ 75 , 103 , 111 , 112 , 113 , 114 , 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 ]. Based on this research, specific LABs could be used as a new dietary therapeutic strategy against HMs toxicity.…”

Microbiome First Approaches to Rescue Public Health and Reduce Human Suffering

“…Public Health done correctly with the NCS would have produced highly useful results for protecting prenatal, infant, and childhood periods of vulnerability. Additionally, had the microbiome been included in the plan, the fact that microbiota determine individual risks to food, drugs, and environmental toxicants would have been revealed and might have led to better preventative medicine against NCDs sooner rather than later [ 9 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 ].…”