Prebiotics

Prebiotics

Investigating the potential of prebiotics to rebalance and maintain health

Task Force Information

Objectives and list of Task Force
members

Contact Information

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specific questions

Activity Overview

Overview of ongoing and
upcoming activities

Expert Groups

Objectives, output and list of experts
involved in each activity

Publications

List of publications of this
Task Force

Multimedia

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recordings and much more...

Completed Expert Groups

Details including experts involved of
each activity

Task Force Information

Objectives

A prebiotic is a food ingredient that selectively stimulates growth and/or the activity of microbial species inhabiting the host, which may bring about health benefits. A better understanding of mechanisms of prebiotics is still needed. The task force aims at providing mechanistic insights linking prebiotics to individual health benefits.

Task Force Members

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*Scientific Advisor

Contact Information

For more detailed information, please contact Georgia Chatonidi at gchatonidi@ilsieurope.be

Activity Overview

Ongoing

 

- Role of prebiotics in bacterial and viral infection, and vaccination efficiency

Recent research suggests a beneficial effect of nondigestible carbohydrates-type prebiotics consumption on immunity and resistance to infections. The purpose of this activity is to review and collect and assess the scientific evidence and provide academic and industry scientists working in the prebiotic field with answers regarding the potential impact on viral and bacterial diseases and vaccination efficacy.

Start date: September 2022 | End date: Q4 2024

- Prebiotics sandpit: Identifying knowledge gaps and a roadmap for building a health claims portfolio

The Task Force is organising a workshop taking place on 25 Oct 2023 as a side-event of the ILSI Europe Annual Symposium.
This activity seeks to bring together leading scientific experts, industry leaders and independent regulatory advisors in an interactive and creative environment to identify current gaps in our mechanistic understanding of prebiotics, and propose next steps to fill these gaps. A follow up report will be submitted for publication.

Start date: Q2 2023 | End date: Q3 2024

- Role of prebiotics in cognitive functioning

The Expert Group will soon start working on the role of prebiotics in cognitive functioning. A perspective paper will provide a short synopsis of the field, and propose a list of recommendations to move it forward.

Start date: Oct 2023 | End date: Q3 2024

Upcoming

- Prebiotics and alternatives to animal testing

The TF is developing a new project on prebiotics and alternatives to animal testing. The aim will be to understand the ways in which various prebiotic ingredients function and evaluate them using nonanimal testing methods to uncover their mechanisms of action. The activity is shared with AAT Task Force.

Kick-off: Q4 2024 - End: Q3 2025

- Markers of the gut microbiota

The group aims to identify key markers for assessing microbiota improvement, focusing on measurable indicators of microbiota composition. The activity is shared with the Probiotics Task Force.

Kick-off: Q4 2024 - End: Q1 2026

Expert Groups

Role of prebiotics in cognitive functioning: What do we know and where to go next?

 

Background and objectives

The aim of the activity will be to produce a perspective article that provides a short synopsis of the field, and proposes a list of recommendations to move the field forward. Specifically, it will highlight the need to perform studies in healthy participants that test the potential “rescuing” effects of prebiotics under conditions where cognition may be transiently compromised. Ultimately, such studies would allow better estimation of the magnitude of effects of prebiotics, since current studies largely yield null findings.

Output

  • Perspective paper
  • Presentation at FENS 2023

Expert group members

Role of prebiotics in bacterial and viral infection, and vaccination efficiency

Background and Objectives

Recent research, including human clinical research, gut microbiota effects and resultant metabolites, suggests a beneficial effect of non-digestible carbohydrates-type prebiotics consumption on immunity and resistance to infections. In this context, the purpose of this review is to collect and assess the scientific evidence and provide academic and industry scientists working in the prebiotic field with answers regarding the potential impact on viral and bacterial diseases and vaccination efficacy. The review will give the current status for prebioticsimpact on infections, both prevention or recovery,and in supporting vaccination efficacy, for academicsand industry scientists in this field. Especially in the SARS-Cov2 crisis, such a review may offer guidance to academia and industry to propose research or to manufacture food products with prebiotics for healthier diets to support immunity in vulnerable individuals.

Output

  • Systematic review
  • Presentation at FENS 2023

Expert Group Members

Publications

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Together with proteins and fats, carbohydrates are one of the macronutrients in the human diet. Digestible carbohydrates, such as starch, starch-based products, sucrose, lactose, glucose and some sugar alcohols and unusual (and fairly rare) α-linked glucans, directly provide us with energy while other carbohydrates including high molecular weight polysaccharides, mainly from plant cell walls, provide us with dietary fibre. Carbohydrates which are efficiently digested in the small intestine are not available in appreciable quantities to act as substrates for gut bacteria. Some oligo- and polysaccharides, many of which are also dietary fibres, are resistant to digestion in the small intestines and enter the colon where they provide substrates for the complex bacterial ecosystem that resides there. This review will focus on these non-digestible carbohydrates (NDC) and examine their impact on the gut microbiota and their physiological impact. Of particular focus will be the potential of non-digestible carbohydrates to act as prebiotics, but the review will also evaluate direct effects of NDC on human cells and systems

			Keywords
							Expand
		
Prebiotics, short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), non-digestible carbohydrates

	
To download this open-access article, please click here.


This work was commissioned by the Prebiotics Task Force.



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		Early Nutrition and Long-Term Health
		
	



		
		Nutrition and Brain Health
		
	



		
		Nutrition, Immunity and Inflammation
		
	



		
		Prebiotics
		
	



		
		
	







		
		Probiotics
		
	



		GUT MICROBIOME AND HEALTH and NUTRITION AND CONSUMER SCIENCE
	

	
The gut and brain link via various metabolic and signalling pathways, each with the potential to influence mental, brain and cognitive health. Over the past decade, the involvement of the gut microbiota in gut-brain communication has become the focus of increased scientific interest, establishing the microbiota-gut-brain axis as a field of research. There is a growing number of association studies exploring the gut microbiota's possible role in memory, learning, anxiety, stress, neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Consequently, attention is now turning to how the microbiota can become the target of nutritional and therapeutic strategies for improved brain health and well-being. However, while such strategies that target the gut microbiota to influence brain health and function are currently under development with varying levels of success, still very little is yet known about the triggers and mechanisms underlying the gut microbiota's apparent influence on cognitive or brain function and most evidence comes from pre-clinical studies rather than well controlled clinical trials/investigations. Filling the knowledge gaps requires establishing a standardised methodology for human studies, including strong guidance for specific focus areas of the microbiota-gut-brain axis, the need for more extensive biological sample analyses, and identification of relevant biomarkers. Other urgent requirements are new advanced models for in vitro and in vivo studies of relevant mechanisms, and a greater focus on omics technologies with supporting bioinformatics resources (training, tools) to efficiently translate study findings, as well as the identification of relevant targets in study populations. The key to building a validated evidence base rely on increasing knowledge sharing and multi-disciplinary collaborations, along with continued public-private funding support. This will allow microbiota-gut-brain axis research to move to its next phase so we can identify realistic opportunities to modulate the microbiota for better brain health.

	
To download this open-access article, please click here.

	
This work was conducted in collaboration with the Early Nutrition and Long-Term Health, Nutrition and Brain Health, Nutrition, Immunity and Inflammation, Prebiotics and Probiotics Task Forces.



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Multimedia

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Completed Expert Groups

Overview of completed activities