Abstract
The ninth International Yakult Symposium was held in Ghent, Belgium in April 2018. Keynote lectures were from Professor Wijmenga on using biobanks to understand the relationship between the gut microbiota and health; and Professor Hill on phage-probiotic interactions. Session one included talks from Professor Plӧsch on epigenetic programming by nutritional and environmental factors; Professor Wilmes on the use of "omics" methodologies in microbiome research and Professor Rescigno on the gut vascular barrier. Session two explored the evidence behind Lactobacillus casei Shirota with Dr Nanno explaining the plasticity in immunomodulation that enables the strain to balance immune functions; Dr Macnaughtan outlining its potential therapeutic use in cirrhosis and Professor Nishida detailing effects in subjects under stress. The third session saw Professor Marchesi describing that both the host genes and the gut microbiota can play a role in cancer; Professor Bergheim highlighting crosstalk between the gut and the liver and Professor Cani describing the relationship between the gut microbiota and the endocrine system. The final session explored probiotic mechanisms, with Professor Lebeer dissecting the challenges in conducting mechanistic studies; Professor Wehkamp describing the mucosal defence system and Professor Van de Wiele detailing methods for modelling the gut microbiota in vitro.
Highlights
The ninth International Yakult Symposium, entitled “The Role of Probiotics on the Roadmap to a Healthy Microbiota” was held on 19th–20th April 2018 in Ghent, Belgium
Dysbiosis has been implicated in diseases that manifest both within and outside the gut including autism, asthma, liver disease, skin disorders, type 2 diabetes, obesity and inflammation (Chen et al, 2018), but these relationships have mostly been reported from observational data and so it is not known whether dysbiosis is causal or occurs as a result of such diseases
The composition of the gut microbiota was measured using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequence analysis, and there were no significant differences in the composition of phyla between the two groups at each time point, the proportion of Bacteroidetes tended to increase in the placebo group while it did not change in the probiotic group
Summary
The ninth International Yakult Symposium, entitled “The Role of Probiotics on the Roadmap to a Healthy Microbiota” was held on 19th–20th April 2018 in Ghent, Belgium. Dysbiosis has been implicated in diseases that manifest both within and outside the gut including autism, asthma, liver disease, skin disorders, type 2 diabetes, obesity and inflammation (Chen et al, 2018), but these relationships have mostly been reported from observational data and so it is not known whether dysbiosis is causal or occurs as a result of such diseases. If there is causality, knowing which exact strains/species of bacteria contribute to disease, at what time and through which mechanisms, and how the gut microbiota can be modified to treat or prevent disease would be extremely useful, in relation to chronic diseases due to the high proportion of individuals experiencing these during their lifetime
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