Probiotic characterization of each LAB strain
The ability to survive an in vitro GI model varied between the tested LAB strains. Strain specific tolerance to stomach acidity and/or GI survival has been shown before [
17,
22,
23]. Surprisingly, the main decrease in viable was found in the simulated conditions of small intestinal, and not under the acid stomach conditions. In general most LAB appear to possess a natural ability to survive pancreatin [
24,
25]. In contrast pancreatin tolerance, bile tolerance is strain-specific [
26], so this might cause the observed differences is survival. In vivo, the amount of bile shows high variability to time, along the length of the GI tract and amongst individuals, and the conditions in our in vitro model might not adequately reflect the in vivo situation, where food matrices might help survival of the bacteria.
Antibiotic resistance and transferability of antibiotic resistance genes from probiotic strains to commensal microbiota in the gut are important components of the safety of bacteria used as probiotics [
27]. No antibiotic resistance was found in these commercial available LAB strains for the EFSA panel of antibiotics, whereas this has been found in some other studies [
28]. These latter results highlights the importance of antimicrobial susceptibility testing as part of the safety analysis of potential probiotic strains.
In the present study different LAB strains were evaluated for their ability to antagonize human intestinal pathogens by secretion of antimicrobial compounds, interference with bacterial growth and interference with pathogens during adhesion/invasion process on epithelial cells. The antimicrobial activity of the CFCS of seven LAB strains against five intestinal pathogens was first determined by agar well diffusion method; as reported, two strains,
L. casei W56 and
L. rhamnosus W71, showed relative strong antibacterial activity (inhibition zone >15 mm) and all the others strains moderate activity (inhibition zone between 10 and 15 mm) against the tested pathogens. As these cultured broths were neutralized to pH 6.5, the inhibitory activity to pathogenic bacteria is probably due to production of antibacterial molecules rather than to the acidic conditions of the cultural media. Our data are in agreement with several studies referring antimicrobial activity of LAB strains [
29,
30]. Whether this is due to production of organic acids (e.g., lactic acid and acetic acid), hydrogen peroxide, bacteriocins or other compounds was not investigated in our study.
Other important properties, linked to beneficial effects of probiotics, are the auto-aggregation and the co-aggregation, defined as the accumulation of bacteria of the same species and the accumulation of bacteria of different species respectively. These properties are fundamental for probiotics since auto-aggregation seems to be correlated with the adherence to epithelial cells [
15,
31], a prerequisite for colonization and persistence in the gastrointestinal tract, while co-aggregation represents a barrier to prevent intestinal surface colonization of pathogenic microorganisms [
32]. It has been suggested that cellular aggregation could be positive in promoting the colonization of beneficial micro-organisms, as reported for lactobacilli in the gastrointestinal or vaginal tract [
33,
34]. In our study, the LAB strains showed relatively higher auto-aggregation compared to intestinal pathogens, suggesting that this property may allow them to survive at sufficiently high number and colonize the gastrointestinal tract. All the LAB strains tested showed co-aggregation abilities with pathogens, with percentages depended on the strain (probiotic and pathogen strains) and time of co-incubation. All the LAB strains showed co-aggregation and aggregation abilities, in particular
B. bifidum W23 and
L. rhamnosus W71. Our results are in agreement with Collado et al. [
15], who reported a correlation between auto-aggregation and co-aggregation properties. In addition, our results suggest that the ability of LAB to promote co-aggregation with pathogens and to compete for adhesion to the epithelial cell surface is strain-dependent, probably related with the presence of specific molecules in the LAB surface acting either as ligands binding pathogens and/or as adhesins for attachment to epithelial cells [
35].
Since the binding to epithelial cells is valuable for probiotic bacteria, we also determined the ability of our LAB strains to adhere to Caco-2 intestinal cells. The adhesion index of the tested strains showed a variability depending on the strain, species and genera; in fact, the most adhesive strain resulted to be
B. bifidum W23, while, among the
Lactobacillus spp., the observed adhesion properties differs from species to species. Our data are consistent with studies carried out on the LAB adhesion, showing that this ability was strain-specific and varied within the same species [
36‐
38].
Interference studies between LAB and intestinal pathogens
To colonize the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract, pathogen bacteria must compete with gut resident microbiota, such as lactic acid bacteria that play crucial roles in maintaining the microbial ecosystem of the GI by preventing colonization and infection of incoming bacterial pathogens [
8,
12‐
14]. It is very important to underline that potential probiotic strains are unique and strains of the same genus and species may have different beneficial effects [
14]. In addition, it is assumed that the combinations of specific probiotic strains potentiate the beneficial effects to the host compared to the probiotic strains alone [
39]. In this study, after determining the specific properties of individual LAB strains, three strains and their four combinations were selected and tested for their ability to inhibit the invasiveness of
S. enteritidis ATCC 13076,
L. monocytogenes ATCC 7644,
E. coli O157: H7 ATCC 35150,
C. sakazakii ATCC 29544 and
C. jejuni ATCC 33291 on Caco-2 monolayers. The LAB selection showed the following specific probiotic properties:
B. bifidum W23 possessed moderate auto-aggregative and co-aggregative abilities, high antimicrobial activity, and high adhesion index;
L. salivarius W24 showed moderate auto-aggregative and weak co-aggregative abilities, high antimicrobial ability, and medium adhesion index; while
L. rhamnosus W71 had high auto-aggregative and co-aggregative abilities, moderate antimicrobial activity, and low adhesion index. Our data demonstrated that each LAB was able to reduce the invasion ability of intestinal pathogens; this is in agreement with other studies reporting the protective effect of lactic acid bacteria against
Salmonella spp.,
L. monocytogenes, and
C. jejuni [
13,
40‐
42].
The ability to inhibit the invasion of intestinal pathogens indicates a very high strain-specificity. In fact,
B. bifidum W23 and
L. rhamnosus W71 were able to reduce the invasion of the tested pathogens by exclusion as well as by competition, while
L. salivarius W24 prevalently appeared to operate exclusively via exclusion. Regarding the putative mechanisms of bacterial antagonism, co-aggregation could be one probiotic mechanism of action to prevent the attachment of pathogens to the intestinal surface and avoid its binding to the cellular line [
13,
43]. In our case,
B. bifidum W23 and
L. rhamnosus W71 both co-aggregated well and reduced the invasion of the intestinal pathogens
L. monocytogenes ATCC 7644 and
C. jejuni ATCC 33291. On the contrary,
L. salivarius W24 did not appear to use co-aggregation as its mechanism of action to reduce the invasion of
L. monocytogenes ATCC 7644 and
C. jejuni ATCC 33291. These results support the hypothesis that there are multiple mechanisms by which probiotics exert antagonistic action against intestinal pathogens, and since surface components of LAB are implicated in adhesion, co-aggregation and bacteria–bacteria interactions, these phenomena could be probably interrelated.
According to the hypothesis that a combination of LAB strains may be more effective in vivo than single strains [
7,
35], we found increased percentages of invasion inhibition by the four LAB strain combinations compared to those of the individual LAB strains. Particularly interesting is the case of
S. enteritidis ATCC 13076; in fact, when tested against this pathogen, the individual LAB strains reached low percentages of invasion inhibition (maximum value 57.14% by
L. rhamnosus W71 in the exclusion test), whilst the LAB combinations achieved a greater cumulative percentage of invasion inhibition up to 82.47%. Similarly, regarding
C. sakazakii ATCC 29544, the LAB combinations have reached higher percentages of invasion inhibition, even whilst most cases of the single LAB strains have gained good results (up to 82.86% of invasion inhibition). These findings demonstrate that the tested LAB combinations possess probiotic properties, supporting the hypothesis that the use of probiotic combinations, selected for their strain-specific characteristics, may increase the beneficial effects on human health [
9,
39].
To our knowledge, this is the first work where LAB strains were tested individually as well as in combination by in vitro interference tests with intestinal pathogens. To verify the ability of different LAB strains, also in their combinations, to inhibit the invasion of pathogenic bacteria appears important for the selection of new probiotic microorganisms. For these reasons, the tested LAB may be potential candidates to develop new probiotic combinations to prevent or treat infections by a specific pathogen.