Postbiotics and Their Potential Applications in Early Life Nutrition and Beyond

Abstract

Postbiotics are functional bioactive compounds, generated in a matrix during fermentation, which may be used to promote health. The term postbiotics can be regarded as an umbrella term for all synonyms and related terms of these microbial fermentation components. Therefore, postbiotics can include many different constituents including metabolites, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), microbial cell fractions, functional proteins, extracellular polysaccharides (EPS), cell lysates, teichoic acid, peptidoglycan-derived muropeptides and pili-type structures. Postbiotics is also a rather new term in the ‘-biotics’ field. Where consensus exists for the definitions of pre- and probiotics, this is not yet the case for postbiotics. Here we propose a working definition and review currently known postbiotic compounds, their proposed mechanisms, clinical evidence and potential applications. Research to date indicates that postbiotics can have direct immunomodulatory and clinically relevant effects and evidence can be found for the use of postbiotics in healthy individuals to improve overall health and to relief symptoms in a range of diseases such as infant colic and in adults atopic dermatitis and different causes of diarrhea.

Postbiotics for Preventing and Treating Common Infectious Diseases in Children: A Systematic Review

“…Nevertheless, the review found that a few cases in non-healthy infants (e.g., short bowel syndrome) fed with acidified formulas developed pediatric D-lactic acidosis [44]. Another narrative review that focused on identifying potential applications of postbiotic supplementation in early life reported no significant side effects in healthy children [45].…”

Ready to Use Therapeutical Beverages: Focus on Functional Beverages Containing Probiotics, Prebiotics and Synbiotics

“…In comparison with the probiotics, many studies reported useful efficiencies for postbiotics on host physiological parameters, including certain chemical structure, safety dose factors and prolonged shelf life [139,140]. The probiotics synthesize the postbiotics as non-viable or metabolic byproducts within the fermentation process, whose combination with other nutritional components can show health-promoting effects [141,142]. These compounds include organic acids, short chain fatty acids, endo-polysaccharides, exo-polysaccharides, peptides, cellular superficial proteins, plasmalogens, teichoic acids, muropeptides derived by peptidoglycan, and various enzymes.…”

Beyond Heat Stress: Intestinal Integrity Disruption and Mechanism-Based Intervention Strategies

“…Stress conditions, including HS, induce alterations in the microbiota balance, which may result in the colonization of enteric pathogens [63], and intestinal inflammatory responses [64]. Stabilization of the gut microbiota composition by pro-, pre-, syn-, and postbiotics is considered as an effective strategy to improve gut health and to protect the intestines against stress conditions [65][66][67][68].…”