Microbial flora, probiotics, Bacillus subtilis and the search for a long and healthy human longevity
Authors:Facundo Rodriguez Ayala, Carlos Bauman, Sebastián Cogliati, Cecilia Leñini, Marco Bartolini and Roberto Grau
doi: 10.15698/mic2017.04.569
Volume 4, pp. 133 to 136, published 16/03/2017.
Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario. CONICET – Rosario. Argentina.
Keywords:
Bacillus subtilis, probiotics, biofilms, lifespan, healthy longevity, dietary restriction, insulin signaling.
Corresponding Author(s):
Conflict of interest statement:
None declared.
Please cite this article as:
Facundo Rodriguez Ayala, Carlos Bauman, Sebastián Cogliati, Cecilia Leñini, Marco Bartolini and Roberto Grau (2017). Microbial flora, Probiotics, Bacillus subtilis and the search for a long and healthy human longevity. Microbial Cell 4(4): 133-136.
© 2017 Ayala et al. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
Abstract:
Probiotics are live microorganisms that have beneficial effects on host health, including extended lifespan, when they are administered or present in adequate quantities. However, the mechanisms by which probiotics stimulate host longevity remain unclear and very poorly understood. In a recent study (Nat. Commun. 8, 14332 (2017) doi: 10.1038/ncomms14332), we used the spore-forming probiotic bacterium Bacillus subtilis and the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans to study the mechanism by which a probiotic bacterium affects host longevity. We found that biofilm-proficient B. subtilis colonized the C. elegans gut and extended the worm lifespan significantly longer than did biofilm-deficient isogenic strains. In addition to biofilm proficiency, the quorum-sensing pentapeptide CSF and nitric oxide (NO) represent the entire B. subtilis repertoire responsible for the extended longevity of C. elegans. B. subtilis grown under biofilm-supporting conditions synthesized higher levels of NO and CSF than under planktonic growth conditions, emphasizing the key role of the biofilm in slowing host aging. Significantly, the prolongevity effect of B. subtilis was primarily due to a downregulation of the insulin-like signaling system that precisely is a key partaker in the healthy longevity of human centenarians. These findings open the possibility to test if the regular consumption of B. subtilis incorporated in foods and beverages could significantly extend human life expectancy and contribute to stop the development of age-related diseases.