Mechanistic insights into the action of probiotics against bacterial vaginosis and its mediated preterm birth: An overview.

The human body is a reservoir of numerous micro-creatures; whose role is substantial and indispensable in the overall development of human beings. The advances in omic approaches have offered powerful means to decipher the core microbiome and metabolome diversities in a specific organ system. The establishment of lactobacilli in the female reproductive tract is thought to be a paramount prerequisite that maintains homeostatic conditions for a sustainable and healthy pregnancy. Nevertheless, a plethora of such Lactobacillus strains of vaginal source revealed probiotic phenotypes. The plummeting in the occurrence of lactobacilli in the vaginal ecosystem is associated with several adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs). One such pathological condition is "Bacterial Vaginosis" (BV), a pathogen dominated gynecological threat. In this scenario, the ascending traffic of notorious Gram-negative/variable BV pathogens to the uterus is one of the proposed pathways that give rise to inflammation-related APOs like preterm birth. Since antibiotic resistance is aggravating among urogenital pathogens, the probiotics intervention remains one of the alternative biotherapeutic strategies to overcome BV and its associated APOs. Perhaps, the increased inclination towards the safer and natural biotherapeutic strategies rather than pharmaceutical drugs for maintaining gestational and reproductive health resulted in the use of probiotics in pregnancy diets. In this context, the current review is an attempt to highlight the microbiome and metabolites signatures of BV and non-BV vaginal ecosystem, inflammation or infection-related preterm birth, host-microbial interactions, role and effectiveness of probiotics to fight against aforesaid diseased conditions.

Physico-chemical and antimicrobial properties of d-limonene oil nanoemulsion stabilized by whey protein-maltodextrin conjugates.

In the present investigation d-limonene oil (4-isopropenyl-1-methylcyclohexene) was encapsulated by ultra-sonication method using whey protein (WP)-maltodextrin (MD) conjugates as coating material and their characterization was done with respect to physico-chemical and antimicrobial properties. Antimicrobial activity of limonene oil (LO) nanoemulsion and bulk LO dissolved in dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) were assessed by agar well diffusion method. Stable formulation of d-limonene oil nanoemulsion [5.0% LO + 9.0% WP-MD (1:2 w/w) conjugate] had shown mean particle size, zeta potential and poly dispersity index of 116.60 ± 5.30 nm, - 19.64 ± 0.23 mV and 0.205 ± 0.02 respectively. LO nanoemulsion were stable to different food processing conditions like heat treatments, ionic strength (0.1-1.0 M) and pH (3.0-7.0). LO nanoemulsion was stable for 15 days at 25 °C and it had shown particle size of 332.20 ± 5.40 nm at 15th day. It was observed that minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of both LO nanoemulsion and bulk LO dissolved in DMSO were at 12.50 µl/ml against Bacillus cereus (ATCC 14459), Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), Enterococcus faecalis (NCDC 115) and Salmonella typhi (NCDC 6017). Since d-limonene has been considered to be a safer alternative compared to synthetic antimicrobial food additives, the present investigation will be helpful in developing a more effective antimicrobial system for the production and preservation of foods.