Antimicrobial activity of lactic acid bacteria in dairy products and gut: effect on pathogens

Biomed Res Int. 2015:2015:584183. doi: 10.1155/2015/584183. Epub 2015 Mar 16.

Abstract

The food industry seeks alternatives to satisfy consumer demands of safe foods with a long shelf-life able to maintain the nutritional and organoleptic quality. The application of antimicrobial compounds-producing protective cultures may provide an additional parameter of processing in order to improve the safety and ensure food quality, keeping or enhancing its sensorial characteristics. In addition, strong evidences suggest that certain probiotic strains can confer resistance against infection with enteric pathogens. Several mechanisms have been proposed to support this phenomenon, including antimicrobial compounds secreted by the probiotics, competitive exclusion, or stimulation of the immune system. Recent research has increasingly demonstrated the role of antimicrobial compounds as protective mechanism against intestinal pathogens and therefore certain strains could have an effect on both the food and the gut. In this aspect, the effects of the combination of different strains keep unknown. The development of multistrain probiotic dairy products with good technological properties and with improved characteristics to those shown by the individual strains, able to act not only as protective cultures in foods, but also as probiotics able to exert a protective action against infections, has gained increased interest.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Anti-Infective Agents / metabolism*
  • Dairy Products
  • Food Microbiology
  • Gastrointestinal Tract / metabolism*
  • Gastrointestinal Tract / microbiology*
  • Humans
  • Lactic Acid / metabolism*
  • Lactobacillus / metabolism*
  • Probiotics / metabolism*

Substances

  • Anti-Infective Agents
  • Lactic Acid