Enhancing nutraceutical formulations by examining the proteome response of probiotics to intestinal human pathogens

消费者对产生健康益处的营养食品的需求推动了加拿大食品和食品补充剂行业生产新一代增值功能食品和食品添加剂。功能性食品通常含有益生菌微生物，有助于维持内部微生物平衡和抵御病原体。然而，由摄入益生菌引起的肠道环境的变化以及对人类和动物的常驻肠道微生物区系以及潜在病原体的后续影响尚未得到很好的理解。环境对微生物的影响最终表现为微生物产生的总蛋白质的变化，这被称为其蛋白质组。为了了解益生菌如何限制致病菌的影响，重要的是要了解这些不同类型的细菌之间存在的关系，以及这些相互作用如何改变益生菌的蛋白质表达谱。该研究项目旨在评估益生菌暴露于常见肠道和胃病原体后发生的蛋白质组学改变。最终目标是了解益生菌如何应对病原体，以便更好地选择益生菌纳入营养食品补充剂。

Consumer demand for nutritional foods that generate health benefits has driven the Canadian food and food supplement industries to produce a new generation of value-added functional foods and food additives. Functional foods often contain probiotic microorganisms that contribute to maintaining internal microbial balance and defense against pathogens. However, the changes to the gut environment caused by ingested probiotics and the subsequent effects on the resident gut microflora of both humans and animals, and potential pathogens are not well understood. The influence of the environment on a microorganism is ultimately expressed as the change to the complement of total proteins a microorganism produces, which is known as its proteome. In order to understand how probiotics can limit the effects of pathogenic bacteria, it is important to understand the relationship that exists between these different classes of bacteria and how these interactions alter the protein expression profile of the probiotics. This research project aims to assess the proteomic alterations that occur in probiotics upon exposure to common enteric and gastric pathogens. The ultimate goal is to understand how probiotics respond to pathogens in order to better select probiotics for incorporation into nutritional food supplements.