Probiotics

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Research & Practice

A panel of scientific experts* assembled in London, UK, on October 23, 2013 to discuss the scope and appropriate use of the term ‘probiotic.’ The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) organized the meeting to review the relevance of the 12-year-old FAO/WHO definition of probiotics: "Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on…

Mary Ellen Sanders
Mary Ellen Sanders is a consultant in the area of probiotic microbiology, with special expertise on paths to scientific substantiation of probiotic product label claims. Dr. Sanders served as the founding president of the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) and is currently the organization’s Director of Scientific Affairs/ Executive Officer. This international, non-profit association of academic and industrial scientists is dedicated to advancing the science of probiotics and prebiotics (www.isapp.net). Through numerous written, oral and video pieces, including a website, www.usprobiotics.org, she strives to provide objective, evidence-based information on probiotics for consumers and professionals. Key activities include: Panels to determine GRAS status of probiotic strains ; member of the American Gastroenterological Association Scientific Advisory Board for AGA Center for Gut Microbiome Research and Education ; World Gastroenterology Organisation Committee preparing practice guidelines for the use of probiotics and prebiotics for GI indications (2008, 2011, 2014) ; working group convened by the FAO/WHO that developed guidelines for probiotics (2002).

A panel of scientific experts* assembled in London, UK, on October 23, 2013 to discuss the scope and appropriate use of the term ‘probiotic.’ The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) organized the meeting to review the relevance of the 12-year-old FAO/WHO definition of probiotics: "Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on…

Mary Ellen Sanders
Mary Ellen Sanders is a consultant in the area of probiotic microbiology, with special expertise on paths to scientific substantiation of probiotic product label claims. Dr. Sanders served as the founding president of the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) and is currently the organization’s Director of Scientific Affairs/ Executive Officer. This international, non-profit association of academic and industrial scientists is dedicated to advancing the science of probiotics and prebiotics (www.isapp.net). Through numerous written, oral and video pieces, including a website, www.usprobiotics.org, she strives to provide objective, evidence-based information on probiotics for consumers and professionals. Key activities include: Panels to determine GRAS status of probiotic strains ; member of the American Gastroenterological Association Scientific Advisory Board for AGA Center for Gut Microbiome Research and Education ; World Gastroenterology Organisation Committee preparing practice guidelines for the use of probiotics and prebiotics for GI indications (2008, 2011, 2014) ; working group convened by the FAO/WHO that developed guidelines for probiotics (2002).

Patrick Veiga and MetaHIT colleagues tested how fermented milks product could modulate microbiota. Using a metagenomics approach, they found that the abundance of unknown species increased in the gut when patients took the fermented milk product. Having access to the functional content, authors found that those species had the functional potential to produce butyrate. Patrick Veiga accepted to give us…

GMFH Editing Team
GMFH Editing Team

Patrick Veiga and MetaHIT colleagues tested how fermented milks product could modulate microbiota. Using a metagenomics approach, they found that the abundance of unknown species increased in the gut when patients took the fermented milk product. Having access to the functional content, authors found that those species had the functional potential to produce butyrate. Patrick Veiga accepted to give us…

GMFH Editing Team
GMFH Editing Team

Using a stress model in animals, Da Silva and colleagues induced gut hyperpermeability and visceral hypersensitivity as well as a shift in O-glycosylation of mucins, associated with flattening and loss of the mucus layer cohesive properties. The probiotic L. farciminis bound to intestinal Muc2 prevented stress-induced functional alterations and changes in mucin O-glycosylation and mucus physical properties and restored epithelial…

Paul Enck
Prof. Dr. Paul Enck, Director of Research, Dept. of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Tübingen, Germany. His main interests are gut functions in health and disease, including functional and inflammatory bowel disorders, the role of the gut microbiota, regulation of eating and food intake and its disorders, of nausea, vomiting and motion sickness, and the psychophysiology and neurobiology of the placebo response, with specific emphasis on age and gender contributions. He has published more than 170 original data paper in scientific, peer-reviewed journals, and more than 250 book chapters and review articles. He is board member/treasurer of the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility and of the German Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility, and has served as reviewer for many international journals and grant agencies.

Using a stress model in animals, Da Silva and colleagues induced gut hyperpermeability and visceral hypersensitivity as well as a shift in O-glycosylation of mucins, associated with flattening and loss of the mucus layer cohesive properties. The probiotic L. farciminis bound to intestinal Muc2 prevented stress-induced functional alterations and changes in mucin O-glycosylation and mucus physical properties and restored epithelial…

Paul Enck
Prof. Dr. Paul Enck, Director of Research, Dept. of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Tübingen, Germany. His main interests are gut functions in health and disease, including functional and inflammatory bowel disorders, the role of the gut microbiota, regulation of eating and food intake and its disorders, of nausea, vomiting and motion sickness, and the psychophysiology and neurobiology of the placebo response, with specific emphasis on age and gender contributions. He has published more than 170 original data paper in scientific, peer-reviewed journals, and more than 250 book chapters and review articles. He is board member/treasurer of the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility and of the German Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility, and has served as reviewer for many international journals and grant agencies.

In an article published online on June 24, 2014 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Zhongyi Chen and Lilu Guo, from the Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, showed that the administration of a modified bacteria expressing therapeutic factors in the gut microbiota could reduce food intake and obesity. By adding an engineered NAPE*-expressing E. coli Nissle 1917 strain in the drinking water of mice for 8 weeks,…

GMFH Editing Team
GMFH Editing Team

In an article published online on June 24, 2014 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Zhongyi Chen and Lilu Guo, from the Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, showed that the administration of a modified bacteria expressing therapeutic factors in the gut microbiota could reduce food intake and obesity. By adding an engineered NAPE*-expressing E. coli Nissle 1917 strain in the drinking water of mice for 8 weeks,…

GMFH Editing Team
GMFH Editing Team

A Nature Medicine paper by Hitesh S Deshmukh and colleagues from the Division of Neonatology, Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsilvania, USA reports an important aspect to the use of antibiotics in the integrity of the immune system in the newborn. Neonatal colonization by microbes, which begins immediately after birth, is influenced by gestational age and the mother’s microbiota and is…

Paul Enck
Prof. Dr. Paul Enck, Director of Research, Dept. of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Tübingen, Germany. His main interests are gut functions in health and disease, including functional and inflammatory bowel disorders, the role of the gut microbiota, regulation of eating and food intake and its disorders, of nausea, vomiting and motion sickness, and the psychophysiology and neurobiology of the placebo response, with specific emphasis on age and gender contributions. He has published more than 170 original data paper in scientific, peer-reviewed journals, and more than 250 book chapters and review articles. He is board member/treasurer of the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility and of the German Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility, and has served as reviewer for many international journals and grant agencies.

A Nature Medicine paper by Hitesh S Deshmukh and colleagues from the Division of Neonatology, Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsilvania, USA reports an important aspect to the use of antibiotics in the integrity of the immune system in the newborn. Neonatal colonization by microbes, which begins immediately after birth, is influenced by gestational age and the mother’s microbiota and is…

Paul Enck
Prof. Dr. Paul Enck, Director of Research, Dept. of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Tübingen, Germany. His main interests are gut functions in health and disease, including functional and inflammatory bowel disorders, the role of the gut microbiota, regulation of eating and food intake and its disorders, of nausea, vomiting and motion sickness, and the psychophysiology and neurobiology of the placebo response, with specific emphasis on age and gender contributions. He has published more than 170 original data paper in scientific, peer-reviewed journals, and more than 250 book chapters and review articles. He is board member/treasurer of the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility and of the German Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility, and has served as reviewer for many international journals and grant agencies.