Lactobacillus sp. as probiotics for human health with special emphasis on colorectal cancer

Abstract

Probiotics are live microorganisms when administered in adequate amount confer health benefit to the host. Extensive usage of probiotics in dairy as a starter in preparation of cheese and other dairy products has become popular in the recent past. The representatives of probiotics mainly include Lactic Acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. plantarum, L. johnsonii, L. gasseri, L. casei, L. rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium longum, B. breve, B. infantis, B. thermophillum, B. pseudolongum and others. A number of animal studies conducted by various research groups indicated that the probiotics possess potential anticancer effects. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most devastating diseases causing high morbidity and mortality among human in most of the urban, eastern and western parts of the world. Oral intake of large number of substances among human perhaps act as mutagenic compounds resulting in change of native microbiota of intestine and could induce cancer. In the present review, the beneficial effects of probiotics in reducing the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) have been discussed drawing observations from an ongoing related research work in our laboratory. The present article also focuses to describe the beneficial applications of Lactobacillus spp. particularly in human.