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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Food Microbiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1522794
This article is part of the Research Topic Probiotics for Global Health: Advances, Applications and Challenges View all 17 articles

Novel probiotics adsorbing and excreting microplastics in vivo show potential gut health benefits

Provisionally accepted
Xin Teng Xin Teng Tengxun Zhang Tengxun Zhang Chitong Rao Chitong Rao *
  • Bluepha Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Microplastics (MP) contamination in food and water poses significant health risks. While microbes that form biofilm show potential for removing MP from the environment, no methods currently exist to eliminate these non-degradable MP from the human body. In this study, we propose using probiotics to adsorb and remove ingested MP within the gut. We conducted a comprehensive evaluation of 784 bacterial strains to assess their ability to adsorb 0.1 μm polystyrene particles using a high-throughput screening method. Among the tested strains, Lacticaseibacillus paracasei DT66 and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum DT88 exhibited optimal adsorption in vitro and were effective across various MP types. In an animal model, mice treated with these probiotics demonstrated a 34% increase in PS excretion rates and a 67% reduction in residual polystyrene (PS) particles within the intestine. Additionally, administration of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum DT88 mitigated PS-induced intestinal inflammation. Together, our findings demonstrate a novel probiotic strategy for addressing MP-associated health risks, emphasizing the potential of strain-specific probiotics to remove MP from the gut environment.

    Keywords: Microplastics, Probiotics, Lactobacillus, Adsorption, MP-associated health risks, High-Throughput Screening

    Received: 12 Nov 2024; Accepted: 27 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Teng, Zhang and Rao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Chitong Rao, Bluepha Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.