Saint James School of Medicine, Park Ridge, IL 60068, USA.
Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, 20122 Milan, Italy.
Nutrients. 2024 Jul 24;16(15):2400. doi: 10.3390/nu16152400.
Postbiotics are defined as a preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers a health benefit to the host. They range from cell wall fragments to metabolites, bacterial lysates, extracellular vesicles, and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Postbiotics may influence carcinogenesis via a variety of mechanisms. They can promote homeostatic immune responses, reduce inflammation, induce selective cytotoxicity against tumor cells, as well as the enabling the control of tumor cell proliferation and enhancing intestinal epithelial barrier function. Therefore, probiotics can serve as an adjunct strategy in anticancer treatment together with chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Up to now, the only relevant postbiotics used as interventions in oncological patients remain vitamin K molecules, with few phase-II and III trials available. In fact, postbiotics' levels are strictly dependent on the gut microbiota's composition, which may vary between individuals and can be altered under different physiological and pathological conditions. Therefore, the lack of consistent clinical evidence supporting postbiotics' efficacy is due to their poor bioavailability, short half-life, and fluctuating levels. Synbiotics, a mixture of prebiotics and probiotics, are expected to have a more homogeneous bioavailability with respect to postbiotics and may have greater potential for future development. In this review, we focus on the role of postbiotics as an adjuvant therapy in cancer treatment.
后生元被定义为一种无生命微生物及其成分的制剂,它能使宿主受益于健康。后生元的范围从细胞壁碎片到代谢物、细菌裂解物、细胞外囊泡和短链脂肪酸 (SCFA)。后生元可能通过多种机制影响肿瘤发生。它们可以促进稳态免疫反应,减轻炎症,诱导对肿瘤细胞的选择性细胞毒性,以及控制肿瘤细胞增殖和增强肠道上皮屏障功能。因此,益生菌可以与化疗和免疫疗法一起作为抗癌治疗的辅助策略。到目前为止,唯一作为干预措施用于肿瘤患者的后生元仍然是维生素 K 分子,仅有少数 II 期和 III 期试验可用。事实上,后生元的水平严格依赖于肠道微生物群的组成,其在个体之间可能存在差异,并可能在不同的生理和病理条件下发生变化。因此,后生元疗效缺乏一致的临床证据是由于其生物利用度差、半衰期短和水平波动。与后生元相比,合生元(益生菌和益生元的混合物)预计具有更均匀的生物利用度,并且可能具有更大的未来发展潜力。在这篇综述中,我们重点关注后生元作为癌症治疗辅助疗法的作用。
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