Dynamic effects of probiotic formula ecologic®825 on human small intestinal ileostoma microbiota: a network theory approach

ABSTRACT

The gut microbiota plays a pivotal role in health and disease. The use of probiotics as microbiota-targeted therapies is a promising strategy to improve host health. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in such therapies are often not well understood, particularly when targeting the small intestinal microbiota. In this study, we investigated the effects of a probiotic formula (Ecologic®825) on the adult human small intestinal ileostoma microbiota. The results showed that supplementation with the probiotic formula led to a reduction in the growth of pathobionts, such as Enterococcaceae and Enterobacteriaceae, and a decrease in ethanol production. These changes were associated with significant alterations in nutrient utilization and resistance to perturbations. These probiotic mediated alterations which coincided with an initial increase in lactate production and decrease in pH were followed by a sharp increase in the levels of butyrate and propionate. Moreover, the probiotic formula increased the production of multiple N-acyl amino acids in the stoma samples. The study demonstrates the utility of network theory in identifying novel microbiota-targeted therapies and improving existing ones. Overall, the findings provide insights into the dynamic molecular mechanisms underlying probiotic therapies, which can aid in the development of more effective treatments for a range of conditions.

KEYWORDS:

• Probiotics
• gut microbiota
• small intestine
• dynamic correlation-based networks
• metabolites
• sequencing

Author’s contributions

JJ, SEA: Conceptualization, investigation, writing-original draft, and editing; JJ, MS, PvA, NuT: data analysis; JJ, ACC, NuT, SsES, PvA: methodology; SvH, GpvW: Conceptualization, writing review; SEA: funding acquisition. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

S. van Hemert is employee in Winclove (Winclove manufactures and markets probiotics). The content of this study was neither influenced nor constrained by this fact. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Data availability statement

The raw LC-MS/MS data was deposited in the MASSIVE database, accession ID: MSV000091160.

The shallow shotgun sequencing data were deposited under BioProject number PRJNA928311.

The raw ¹H-NMR data was deposited in the Metabolights public repository under the accession number: MTBLS6987

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ileostomy samples were collected from healthy subjects after the participants signed an informed consent in which they donated their sample (procedure approved by Ethics Committee of the University Hospital Ghent; reference number BC-09977).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2023.2232506

Additional information

Funding

SEA has received research funding support from Winclove, B.V. This support neither influenced nor constrained the contents of this article.