Abstract
Enterococci are ubiquitous microorganisms that could be found everywhere; in water, plant, soil, foods, and gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals. They were previously used as starters in food fermentation due to their biotechnological traits (enzymatic and proteolytic activities) or protective cultures in food biopreservation due to their produced antimicrobial bacteriocins called enterocins or as probiotics, live cells with different beneficial characteristics such as stimulation of immunity, anti-inflammatory activity, hypocholesterolemic effect, and prevention/treatment of some diseases. However, in the last years, the use of enterococci in foods or as probiotics caused an important debate because of their opportunistic pathogenicity implicated in several nosocomial infections due to virulence factors and antibiotic resistance, particularly the emergence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci. These virulence traits of some enterococci are associated with genetic transfer mechanisms. Therefore, the development of new enterococcal probiotics needs a strict assessment with regard to safety aspects for selecting the truly harmless enterococcal strains for safe applications. This review tries to give some data of the different points of view about this question.
Highlights
In recent years, probiotics are being consumed increasingly
lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are popular as probiotic candidates due to their being generally recognised as safe status (GRAS)
The mode of action enterolysin A is quite different from the other enterocins because it attacks susceptible bacteria by degrading the cell wall structure, which eventually leads to lysis of the cells of target strains [110]
Summary
Probiotics are being consumed increasingly. Several studies have shown that probiotics, viable microorganisms, are known for their beneficial health effects in human and animal such as immune system strengthening, metabolic disorder reduction, and feed digestibility improvement [1]. Many research studies showed that some strains isolated from animals, fermented or nonfermented food products, could be potential candidates to be used as promising probiotics for humans and animals [2]. Many recent studies have demonstrated an alarming increase in multidrug resistant enterococci, vancomycin-resistant strains and their ability to acquire and transfer antibioresistance genes and virulence factors [5]. Based on these findings, the use of enterococci as probiotics generates serious concern leading to the need of deep research studies to better understand the pathogenicity of these versatile microorganisms and elaborate urgent and accurate measures to distinguish safe strains and select them as efficient probiotics. The main aims of this review are to summarise the pros and cons of enterococci in view of their future use as probiotics and discuss their dual and controversial features between opportunistic pathogens or promising probiotics
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
