Evolutionary concepts in the functional biotics arena: a mini-review

Abstract

Over the years, the attempts to elucidate the role of beneficial microorganisms in shaping human health are becoming fairly apparent. The functional impact conferred by such microbes is not only transmitted by viable cells or their metabolites but also through non-viable cells. Extensive research to unveil the protective action of such wonder bugs has resulted in categorizing the beneficial microflora and their bioactive metabolites into a variety of functional biotic concepts based on their intended applications in various forms. In the modern era, these are often termed as probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics, next-generation probiotics, psychobiotics, oncobiotics, pharmabiotics, and metabiotics. Currently, the concept of traditional probiotics is being widened to include microbes beyond lactic acid bacteria. Indeed, this diversification has broadened the functional food portfolio from food to pharmaceuticals. In this context, the present review aims to summarize the existing biotic concepts and their differences thereof.

Human microbiome and metabolic health: An overview of systematic reviews

“…Synbiotics are a combination of both probiotics and prebiotics that induce synergistic health benefits where prebiotics are supposed to enhance the proliferation of the probiotics so they can maximally change the microbiome 123 . However, the scores for the meta‐evidence and success rate for synbiotics were not better but rather similar to probiotics and less meta‐analyses were retrieved.…”

“…112 These bacteria are not yet well examined in humans but seem promising in animal studies; for example, Roseburia intestinalis decreased inflammation and restored the gut barrier 122 and are considered as next generation probiotics or led to the development of postbiotics. 123 Within the Archaea domain, the methane producing Methanobrevibacter had lower abundance in obesity and its main species Methanobrevibacter smithii showed a similar trend although some studies also found the opposite direction. There is still a lot of F I G U R E 2 Potential mechanisms between gut microbiota and metabolic health.…”

“…85,88,105 Synbiotics Synbiotics are a combination of both probiotics and prebiotics that induce synergistic health benefits where prebiotics are supposed to enhance the proliferation of the probiotics so they can maximally change the microbiome. 123 However, the scores for the metaevidence and success rate for synbiotics were not better but rather similar to probiotics and less meta-analyses were retrieved. Again, liver function and glucose homeostasis had higher scores of evidence, but now also inflammation seemed successfully influenced (although less researched).…”

“…In the same idea of functional change, interventions should aim to modulate metabolic pathways. Therefore, probiotic intervention will potentially be gradually complemented or replaced by disease-specific approaches including postbiotics and paraprobiotics 123,131 or even more targeted approaches via phage therapy or genetically modified strains. 127 Finally, the focus on gut bacteria is expending towards other kingdoms (virome, mycobiome, etc.)…”

“…For observational research, a lot of new microbiota relations have recently been discovered; for example, the Dysosmobacter genus correlated negatively with BMI and hyperglycemia and shows promise to prevent diet-induced obesity and metabolic disorder. 130 For interventional research, synbiotics become less popular with more focus on nonviable probiotics (microbial compounds like postbiotics or inactivated cells like paraprobiotics) 123,131 and fecal transplant. 129 Third, a review of reviews has the risk of duplicate inclusion of original studies that could so have more weight in the findings.…”