Abstract
Apilactobacillus kunkeei is an insect symbiont with documented beneficial effects on the health of honeybees. It belongs to fructophilic lactic acid bacteria (FLAB), a subgroup of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) notably recognized for their safe status. This fact, together with its recurrent isolation from hive products that are traditionally part of the human diet, suggests its possible safe use as human probiotic. Our data concerning three strains of A. kunkeei isolated from bee bread and honeybee gut highlighted several interesting features, such as the presence of beneficial enzymes (β-glucosidase, β-galactosidase and leucine arylamidase), the low antibiotic resistance, the ability to inhibit P. aeruginosa and, for one tested strain, E. faecalis, and an excellent viability in presence of high sugar concentrations, especially for one strain tested in sugar syrup stored at 4 °C for 30 d. This datum is particularly stimulating, since it demonstrates that selected strains of A. kunkeei can be used for the probiotication of fruit preparations, which are often used in the diet of hospitalized and immunocompromised patients. Finally, we tested for the first time the survival of strains belonging to the species A. kunkeei during simulated gastrointestinal transit, detecting a similar if not a better performance than that showed by Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG, used as probiotic control in each trial.
Highlights
For many years, fermented dairy products were considered as the main source for the isolation of probiotic bacteria [1]
In 2014, the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) provided a document to clarify the use of the term “probiotic”, including under this definition some bacteria of human gut origin, such as Akkermansia muciniphila, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Roseburia spp. and Eubacterium hallii, which clearly do not fall in the core group of well-studied species able to confer some general benefits (Bifidobacterium adolescentis, B. animalis, B. bifidum, B. breve, B. longum and Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. casei, L. fermentum, L. gasseri, L. johnsonii, L. paracasei, L. plantarum, L. rhamnosus and L. salivarius) and generally recognized as safe [10]
Asama et al (2016) [36] highlighted that heat-killed A. kunkeei strains could exert a beneficial role in the human intestinal tract mainly through a possible indirect mechanism involving the modulation of epithelial-derived antimicrobials able to affect the colonization of Bacteroides spp
Summary
For many years, fermented dairy products were considered as the main source for the isolation of probiotic bacteria [1]. The selection process of new potential probiotic strains should focus primarily on their safety, functional properties and beneficial effects on the health of the hosts, rather than on their “origin” [9], intended as the matrix of isolation as well as whether the strains belong to specific genera and species universally recognized as “safe” For this last aspect, in 2014, the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) provided a document to clarify the use of the term “probiotic”, including under this definition some bacteria of human gut origin, such as Akkermansia muciniphila, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Roseburia spp. and Eubacterium hallii, which clearly do not fall in the core group of well-studied species able to confer some general benefits (Bifidobacterium adolescentis, B. animalis, B. bifidum, B. breve, B. longum and Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. casei, L. fermentum, L. gasseri, L. johnsonii, L. paracasei, L. plantarum, L. rhamnosus and L. salivarius) and generally recognized as safe [10]
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