Probiotics and postbiotics in colorectal cancer: Prevention and complementary therapy.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of human mortality worldwide. As conventional anticancer therapy not always being effective, there is growing interest in innovative "drug-free" cancer treatments or interventions that improve the efficacy of established therapy. CRC is associated with microbiome alterations, a process known as dysbiosis that involves depletion and/or enrichment of particular gut bacterial species and their metabolic functions. Supplementing patient treatment with traditional probiotics (with or without prebiotics), next-generation probiotics (NGP), or postbiotics represents a potentially effective and accessible complementary anticancer strategy by restoring gut microbiota composition and/or by signaling to the host. In this capacity, restoration of the gut microbiota in cancer patients can stabilize and enhance intestinal barrier function, as well as promote anticarcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic or other biologically important biochemical pathways that show high specificity towards tumor cells. Potential benefits of traditional probiotics, NGP, and postbiotics include modulating gut microbiota composition and function, as well as the host inflammatory response. Their application in CRC prevention is highlighted in this review, where we consider supportive in vitro, animal, and clinical studies. Based on emerging research, NGP and postbiotics hold promise in establishing innovative treatments for CRC by conferring physiological functions via the production of dominant natural products and metabolites that provide new host-microbiota signals to combat CRC. Although favorable results have been reported, further investigations focusing on strain and dose specificity are required to ensure the efficacy and safety of traditional probiotics, NGP, and postbiotics in CRC prevention and treatment.

Ability of Lactobacillus plantarum LS/07 to modify intestinal enzymes activity in chronic diseases prevention.

The ability of probiotic strain Lactobacillus plantarum LS/07 to modify the activity of intestinal bacterial enzymes - ß-glucuronidase (ß-GLUCUR), ß-galactosidase (ß-GAL), and ß-glucosidase (ß-GLU) in prevention of chronic diseases - cancer, atherosclerosis and dysbiosis was investigated. The male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 12 experimental groups: controls groups - C (control), AT (atherosclerotic), CC (carcinogenic), dysbiotic groups - each group in combination with antibiotics (ATB), probiotics groups - in combinatioan with probiotic (PRO) alone, and each group with combination of antibiotic and probiotic (ATB+PRO). In the control group the ß-glucuronidase activity did not change throughout the experiment. High fat diet in atherosclerotic group significantly increased the activity of ß-glucuronidase (P<0.001) and ß-glucosidase (P<0.01). Azoxymethane application in carcinogenic group significantly increased ß-glucuronidase (P<0.01), but reduced ß-glucosidase (P<0.01) activity. Daily application of probiotics alone and in combination with antibiotic increased ß-galactosidase, of ß-glucosidase, and decreased ß-glucuronidase activity. In control antibiotic group we observed significant increase in ß-glucuronidase (P<0.05) and decreased ß-glucosidase (P<0.01) activity which can be caused by the change of microflora in favor of coliform bacteria. These findings indicate the positive effects of probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum LS/07 and suggest its use in disease prevention in human medicine and some animal species.