Authors: Muhammad Tanweer Khan, Chinmay Dwibedi, Daniel Sundh, Meenakshi Pradhan, Jamie D. Kraft, Robert Caesar, Valentina Tremaroli, Mattias Lorentzon, Fredrik Bäckhed
Published: 2023-08-02
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06378-w
Source: Full article
AbstractThe human gut microbiota has gained interest as an environmental factor that may contribute to health or disease1. The development of next-generation probiotics is a promising strategy to modulate the gut microbiota and improve human health; however, several key candidate next-generation probiotics are strictly anaerobic2and may require synergy with other bacteria for optimal growth.Faecalibacterium prausnitziiis a highly prevalent and abundant human gut bacterium associated with human health, but it has not yet been developed into probiotic formulations2. Here we describe the co-isolation ofF. prausnitziiandDesulfovibrio piger, a sulfate-reducing bacterium, and their cross-feeding for growth and butyrate production. To produce a next-generation probiotic formulation, we adaptedF. prausnitziito tolerate oxygen exposure, and, in proof-of-concept studies, we demonstrate that the symbiotic product is tolerated by mice and humans (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier:NCT03728868) and is detected in the human gut in a subset of study participants. Our study describes a technology for the production of next-generation probiotics based on the adaptation of strictly anaerobic bacteria to tolerate oxygen exposures without a reduction in potential beneficial properties. Our technology may be used for the development of other strictly anaerobic strains as next-generation probiotics.