AUTHOR=Zhou Qingqing , Qureshi Nuzhat , Xue Bingyao , Xie Zuorui , Li Ping , Gu Qing 

TITLE=Preventive and therapeutic effect of Lactobacillus paracasei ZFM54 on Helicobacter pylori-induced gastritis by ameliorating inflammation and restoring gastric microbiota in mice model

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nutrition

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.972569

DOI=10.3389/fnut.2022.972569

ISSN=2296-861X

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Helicobacter pylori</italic> is the most prevalent pathogen causing chronic gastritis, gastroduodenal ulcers, and gastric tumors and is asymptomatically present in 50% of the world's population. This research is focused on investigating the effect of <italic>Lactobacillus paracasei</italic> ZFM 54 (CCTCC NO:2016667) on attenuating <italic>H. pylori</italic>-induced gastritis. <italic>H. pylori</italic> ZJC03 isolated from a patient with gastritis harbored the virulence genes of <italic>vacA</italic> and <italic>cagA</italic> and was highly resistant to metronidazole (MIC &gt; 256 μg/mL). <italic>In vitro</italic> analysis revealed that the potential anti-<italic>H. pylori</italic> characteristics of <italic>L. paracasei</italic> ZFM54 in terms of 65.57 ± 1.87% survival rate in simulated gastric juices at a pH of 2.0, 69.00 ± 2.73% auto-aggregation, 30.28 ± 2.24% co-aggregation, 70.27 ± 2.23% urease inhibition, and 57.89 ± 1.27% radical scavenging. In <italic>H. pylori</italic> infectious mice, <italic>L. paracasei</italic> ZFM54 pre- and post-treatment reduced the levels of malondialdehyde in liver tissues to 0.71 ± 0.04 nmol/mgprot (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05) and 0.70 ± 0.06 nmol/mgprot (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05), respectively. Glutathione levels were increased to 1.78 ± 0.02 μmol/gprot (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05) and 1.76 ± 0.52 μmol/gprot (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05), respectively. <italic>L. paracasei</italic> ZFM54 significantly inhibited <italic>H. pylori</italic>-mediated inflammation observed in gastric mucosal repair and downregulated the mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines IFN-γ, IL-1β, and IL-6 (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.01). Importantly, <italic>L. paracasei</italic> ZFM54 increased Firmicutes and Actinobacteriota and decreased the relative abundance of bacterial taxa belonging to Campilobacterota and Proteobacteria. With the preventive and therapeutic administration of <italic>L. paracasei</italic> ZFM54, significant reductions in the average relative abundance of genera <italic>Helicobacter, Muribaculum, Staphylococcus, Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, Prevotellaceae_UCG-001, Alloprevotella</italic>, and <italic>Oscillibacter</italic> were observed compared to infected mice. These findings suggest that <italic>L. paracasei</italic> ZFM 54 has the potential to protect against <italic>H. pylori</italic> infection by ameliorating inflammation and restoring the gastric microbiota.</p>