Avaliação do potencial probiótico da levedura Pichia pastoris.

Abstract

Probiotics are live microrganisms which when administered in adequate amounts can confer health benefits to the host. An important criterion for a potential probiotic microrganism it is to present the ability to protect the gastrointestinal tract (TGI) of the host from the action of pathogens such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella Typhimurium. Pichia pastoris is a yeast that is commonly used as expression system to produce recombinant proteins in large scale, where is capable to do post-translational modifications. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the probiotic potential of P. pastoris. At first, we evaluated the resistance of the yeast to adversities of the monogastric TGI simulated in vitro. After, we assessed the safety of using P. pastoris as a probiotic, its resistance to refrigerated storage solution and its ability to inhibit the growth of S. Typhimurium and E. coli in culture media. Finally, we examined the effect of P. pastoris on the survival of mice infected with S.Typhimurium. P. pastoris did not cause histopathological changes when given to animals; withstood the hardships of the gastrointestinal tract in vitro and in vivo and it was able to inhibit the growth of pathogens in- vitro. In addition, the group fed with P. pastoris had the highest survival than the control group when challenged with S. Typhimurium. We conclude that the yeast P. pastoris has the potential probiotic, but the development of new tests should be performed to confirm the antimicrobial characteristics and to observe a possible effect on the immune response.