Use of Wild Type or Recombinant Lactic Acid Bacteria as an Alternative Treatment for Gastrointestinal Inflammatory Diseases: A Focus on Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and Mucositis

Abstract

The human gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is highly colonized by bacterial communities, which live in a symbiotic relationship with the host in normal conditions. It has been shown that a dysfunctional interaction between the intestinal microbiota and the host immune system, known as dysbiosis, is a very important factor responsible for the development of different inflammatory conditions of the GIT, such as the idiopathic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), a complex and multifactorial disorder of the GIT. Dysbiosis has also been implicated in the pathogenesis of other GIT inflammatory diseases such as mucositis usually caused as an adverse effect of chemotherapy. As both diseases have become a great clinical problem, many research groups have been focusing on developing new strategies for the treatment of IBD and mucositis. In this review, we show that lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been capable in preventing and treating both disorders in animal models, suggesting they may be ready for clinical trials. In addition, we present the most current studies on the use of wild type or genetically engineered LAB strains designed to express anti-inflammatory proteins as a promising strategy in the treatment of IBD and mucositis.

Probiotic Propionibacterium freudenreichii requires SlpB protein to mitigate mucositis induced by chemotherapy

“…The currently available treatments of mucositis (cryotherapy, growth factors, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial agents) are poorly effective and may not be well tolerated. In this context, some studies have proposed the use of probiotic bacterial strains, as promising candidates in the treatment or prevention of inflammatory conditions such as mucositis [14,19]. Clinical studies indicate a positive effect of selected lactobacilli in patients with mucositis [20,21], while nothing is known about the effect of probiotic propionibacteria.…”

Safety Aspects of Genetically Modified Lactic Acid Bacteria

“…Live LAB have been developed as biotherapeutics, especially for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders [172][173][174]. NonGM-LAB have been readily used as probiotics, and fecal microbiota have already gained FDA acceptance for transplantation in the treatment of Clostridium difficile infection [175].…”

The impact of Lactococcus lactis (probiotic nasal rinse) co‐culture on growth of patient‐derived strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

“…Probiotics are defined as nonpathogenic bacteria that are allochthonous to the bacterial community of the digestive tract. Most bacterial probiotics are strains of the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) Lactobacillus . Fermentation products produced by lactic acid producing bacteria have been shown to inhibit the proliferation of pathogenic bacteria (eg, Pseudomonas ) and to improve human gastrointestinal health.…”