Prebiotics to Fight Diseases: Reality or Fiction?

Abstract

Bacteria living in the gastrointestinal tract are crucial for human health and disease occurrence. Increasing the beneficial intestinal microflora by consumption of prebiotics, which are 'functional foods', could be an elegant way to limit the number and incidence of disorders and to recover from dysbiosis or antibiotic treatments. This review focuses on the short-chain low-digestible carbohydrates (LDCs) which are metabolized by gut microbiota serving as energy source, immune system enhancers or facilitators of mineral uptake. Intake of foods containing LDCs can improve the state of health and may prevent diseases as for example certain forms of cancer. Given the large number of different molecules belonging to LDCs, we focused our attention on fructans (inulin, fructo-oligosaccharides), galacto-oligosaccharides and resistant starches and their therapeutic and protective applications. Evidence is accumulating that LDCs can inhibit bacterial and viral infections by modulating host defense responses and by changing the interactions between pathogenic and beneficial bacteria. Animal studies and studies on small groups of human subjects suggest that LDCs might help to counteract colorectal cancer, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. The action mechanisms of LDCs in the human body might be broader than originally thought, perhaps also including reactive oxygen species scavenging and signaling events.

A review on prebiotics and probiotics for the control of dysbiosis: present status and future perspectives

“…These compounds do induce a shift in the microbiota composition and can suppress Salmonella colonisation (Eeckhaut et al, 2008). These results suggest that certain prebiotics may help to control dysbiosis in animals, as has been suggested also for human dysbiosis (Di Bartolomeo et al, 2013). Nevertheless, further experimental and field studies are required to support this suggestion.…”

Recent advances in microbial fermentation for dairy and health

“…Prebiotics are fermented by the gastrointestinal microbiota and contribute to healthy modulation of the gut 43 . The ingestion of specific prebiotics has been shown to increase antibacterial capabilities of a probiotic strain 44 .…”

Wheat Fructans: A Potential Breeding Target for Nutritionally Improved, Climate‐Resilient Varieties

“…More specifically, fructans are oligo-and polysaccharides in which fructose-fructosyl osidic linkages constitute the majority of osidic bonds (Roberfroid and Delzenne, 1998). The large amount of structural diversity exhibited by plant fructans has resulted in the categorization of fructans by observed b linkage composition into five main classes (inulin, levan/ phlein, graminan, neo-inulin, and neo-levan) (Vijn and Smeekens, 1999;Ritsema and Smeekens, 2003;Harrison et al, 2012;Di Bartolomeo et al, 2013;Van den Ende, 2013). The degree of polymerization (DP) is much higher for bacterial fructans (£100,000) than for plant fructans (£150) (Kaur and Gupta, 2002).…”