By: Abeer Fatima
Have you ever thought that a baby poop can do wonder one day? Yes, it is true you haven’t misread. A probiotic “cocktail” has been developed by the researchers at wake forest school of medicine by collecting the gut beneficial bacteria from the baby poo. These beneficial bacteria are referred to as probiotics. It won’t be wrong if we termed them as “good germs”. These good germs increase the capability of body to promote the production of essential compounds called short chain fatty acids (SCAFs). Now the point to ponder is that why the baby poo? Although you might feel nauseous but can you imagine a waste can be recycled in this way and we humans are benefited. According to an investigator Hariom Yadav, a phd scholar in molecular medicine at wake forest school of medicine, “ Babies are pretty healthier as compared to adults and clearly they don’t suffer from age related diseases and of course one can easily get the baby poo from the infant diaper. Good germs are gaining popularity across the globe because certain studies has shown that such probiotics possess the ability to prevent or treat various diseases in humans and animals. So now attention is diverted towards increase in the production of these supplements and much focus is done in the production of new probiotic products for the consumers.
Under diseased conditions the gut microbiome is usually disturbed which can be restored by in-taking probiotics. People suffering from diabetes, obesity, cancers and autoimmune disorders have less amount of short chain fatty acids which are necessary to maintain good gut health. By increasing their amount one can expect the restoring of normal environment of gut and hopefully improved health conditions can also be seen. The most buzz about probiotics seems to surrounding the digestive system but to add to your information these good bacteria also influence your immune health which means this strategy also helps in combating corona virus infection. By the intake of probiotics there is colonization of so-called “good bacteria” in the gut and balances our bodyguards Th1/ Th2 cells which as a result lessens the inflammation. Recently it has been found that medication with probiotic bacteria i.e bifidobacteria and lactobacillus provides a significant chance of recovery against COVID-19. Previously lactobacillus casei confers broad protection against influenza A virus primary infection and develops protection against future secondary infection. In the current study, poop samples were collected from diapers of 34 healthy infants and isolate lactobacillus and enterococcus strains having probiotic attributes. Out of 321, ten best strains were selected. A human origin probiotic cocktail is formulated in this way that has the ability to increase SCFAs production. A single dose (oral gavage) as well as five consecutive doses of this ten-strain probiotic cocktail in mice modulates gut microbiome and increases SCFA production (particularly propionate and butyrate). Several, clinical trials give the evidence that the single- and five-dose feeding of these selected probiotics modulated the gut microbiome and increased amount of probiotics was seen in human feces and mouse gut . Many food products such as buttermilks, yoghurts, milk, fruit drinks, ‘daily dose’ drinks and fermented whey-based drinks contains Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG which was isolated from human feces. Diaper-sourced sausages may not be as nauseating as they seem, based on the ever-so-clickable pooperoni headlines. In fact, you have probably already consumed foods or supplements made with a bacterial strain derived from human feces without even knowing it. Hence it can be concluded that human derived probiotics could be exploited as biotherapeutic regiments for human diseases associated with imbalance in gut microbiome and decreased SCFA production in the gut. Further studies are ongoing to overcome the future endeavor.
The writer is a self-motivated researcher currently doing post graduation in Biotechnology from NUST. She can be reached at abeerf0312@gmail.com