Prebiotics and Probiotics: Healthy Biotools for Molecular Integrative and Modulation Approaches
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Bioactives and Nutraceuticals".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 33706
Special Issue Editors
2. Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria (IBS), 18014 Granada, Spain
3. Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology “José Mataix”, Center of Biomedical Research, University of Granada, Avda. del Conocimiento s/n. Armilla, 18016 Granada, Spain
Interests: nutrition and dietetics nutritional; biochemistry; pharmacy; cell biology; molecular biology; immunology; regulation of the gene expression in prokaryotes and eukaryotes; pathogens; enzymology and biotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
2. Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria (IBS), 18014 Granada, Spain
3. Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology “José Mataix”, Center of Biomedical Research, University of Granada, Avda. del Conocimiento s/n. Armilla, 18016 Granada, Spain
Interests: probiotics; next-generation probiotics; molecular microbiology; microbiome; culturomics and toxicomicrobiomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The key role played by beneficial bacteria at the intestine through promoting overall human health is generally accepted. Helpful bacteria in the colon have many important functions that include increasing mineral homeostasis, strengthening the intestinal barrier, regulating the immune response and therefore human health and wellbeing. Hence, probiotics and prebiotics are food bioproducts that exert key functions in maintaining human gut eubiosis and are specially designed for this purpose.
After decades of basic and clinical research, together with the evolution of biotechnological and high-throughput technologies, a huge impact on understanding the effect of probiotics, prebiotics on the immune response, and antibacterial infection have been achieved. Thus, these biotools have become the main instruments to intervene and optimize several physiological functions of the microbiota. Moreover, considerable efforts have been made to influence the intestinal microbiota by dietary complementary means in such a way that the health of the host is positively affected.
Functional foods are those which provide benefits beyond their traditional nutritional value, either enhancing a function of the body or reducing the risk of a disease. One of the main types of functional foods are prebiotics, which are non-digestible foods (mostly oligosaccharides) that selectively stimulate the growth of a limited number of host-friendly colonic bacteria. From a chemical standpoint, resistance to human digestive enzymes and low absorption are key for these compounds to reach the distal parts of the gut, where they can be fermented by the microbiota, which in turn is selectively modified in the process. It is important to note that pathological alterations of the intestinal microbiota (dysbiosis) have been related to conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and fatty liver, and of course in inflammatory bowel disease and infection with pathogenic bacteria.
It is clear that the diversity of prebiotic substances, probiotic microbes, and the influences that they may respectively exert mean that any health-enhancement claims must be supported by experimental and clinical data. However, the molecular mechanisms and interactions of prebiotics and probiotics with their specific targets for immune responses are not well known, and such information will help to identify new alternative compounds as therapies against various pathologies.
The goal of this Special Issue is to further expand our knowledge of the molecular mechanism of prebiotics and probiotics, as well as to offer a complete and broad view of the current situation in the area, and its future projection, pointing out the new indications that will enrich this field.
In this Special Issue, we welcome innovative and original research articles, as well as high-quality review articles with pioneering opinions with a focus on probiotics and prebiotics and balance host health/disease, related to their antibacterial roles.
Prof. Dr. Abdelali Daddaoua
Prof. Dr. Margarita Aguilera
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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