Probiotics: Current Landscape and Future Horizons

Abstract

In recent years there has been a rapid rise in interest for the application of probiotic supplements to act as mediators in health and disease. This appeal is predominantly due to ever-increasing evidence of the interaction of the microbiota and pathophysiological processes of disease within the human host. This narrative review considers the current landscape of the probiotic industry and its research, and discusses current pitfalls in the lack of translation from laboratory science to clinical application. Future considerations into how industry and academia must adapt probiotic research to maximize success are suggested, including more targeted application of probiotic strains dependent on individual capabilities as well as application of multiple advanced analytical technologies to further understand and accelerate microbiome science.

Lay abstract: The global market for probiotic supplements is continually expanding. Despite the public perception of benefits provided by probiotics, the evidence to conclusively link probiotic strains to improved characteristics of health or disease is lacking. This is owing, in part, to the lack of large-scale research trials, but also to the insufficient understanding of the interactions occurring within the human system following supplementation. More in-depth research into individual probiotic strains, combined with the application of multiple advanced measurement techniques will provide a future direction for probiotic research and, in turn, aim to provide useful data to translate into routine healthcare practice.

Keywords::

• disease
• health
• metabolomics
• metagenomics
• metatranscriptomics
• microbiome
• probiotics
• proteomics

Author contributions

All authors contributed to reviewing the literature and writing the manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

RLJ Day and AJ Harper are employees of ADM Protexin Ltd. and RM Woods is funded through a Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd research grant. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

RLJ Day and AJ Harper are employees of ADM Protexin Ltd. and RM Woods is funded through a Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd research grant. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.