Abstract
Gastrointestinal microbiome dysbiosis may result in harmful effects on the host, including those caused by inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). The novel probiotic BIOHM, consisting of Bifidobacterium breve, Saccharomyces boulardii, Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. rhamnosus, and amylase, was developed to rebalance the bacterial–fungal gut microbiome, with the goal of reducing inflammation and maintaining a healthy gut population. To test the effect of BIOHM on human subjects, we enrolled a cohort of 49 volunteers in collaboration with the Fermentation Festival group (Santa Barbara, CA, USA). The profiles of gut bacterial and fungal communities were assessed via stool samples collected at baseline and following 4 weeks of once-a-day BIOHM consumption. Mycobiome analysis following probiotic consumption revealed an increase in Ascomycota levels in enrolled individuals and a reduction in Zygomycota levels (p value < 0.01). No statistically significant difference in Basidiomycota was detected between pre- and post-BIOHM samples and control abundance profiles (p > 0.05). BIOHM consumption led to a significant reduction in the abundance of Candida genus in tested subjects (p value < 0.013), while the abundance of C. albicans also trended lower than before BIOHM use, albeit not reaching statistical significance. A reduction in the abundance of Firmicutes at the phylum level was observed following BIOHM use, which approached levels reported for control individuals reported in the Human Microbiome Project data. The preliminary results from this clinical study suggest that BIOHM is capable of significantly rebalancing the bacteriome and mycobiome in the gut of healthy individuals, suggesting that further trials examining the utility of the BIOHM probiotic in individuals with gastrointestinal symptoms, where dysbiosis is considered a source driving pathogenesis, are warranted.
Highlights
Human gastrointestinal (GI) microbiome research has primarily focused on resident bacteria and their associated bacterial–host interactions, both beneficial and detrimental.solely focusing on bacteria has neglected the potential influence of the host’s fungal community on health and disease
We identified a positive correlation between bacteria and fungi, wherein the bacteria, Escherichia coli and Serratia marcescens, and the fungus, Candida tropicalis, demonstrated increased abundance in the GI tract of Crohn’s disease (CD) patients when compared with their non-Crohn healthy relatives [1]
Do these findings identify a possible new therapeutic targeting approach in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), they highlight a possible avenue for improving human health and disease as a whole through microbiome modulation
Summary
Human gastrointestinal (GI) microbiome research has primarily focused on resident bacteria and their associated bacterial–host interactions, both beneficial and detrimental.solely focusing on bacteria has neglected the potential influence of the host’s fungal community (mycobiome) on health and disease. We showed that C. tropicalis and the two bacterial species cooperate in a strategic way to form in vitro pathogenic biofilms capable of causing damage to the epithelial cell lining of the gut and initiating an inflammatory response [2]. Do these findings identify a possible new therapeutic targeting approach (i.e., bacterial–fungal interaction modulation) in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), they highlight a possible avenue for improving human health and disease as a whole through microbiome modulation
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