Antifungal defense of probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG is mediated by blocking adhesion and nutrient depletion
Open accessAbstract
Candida albicans is an inhabitant of mucosal surfaces in healthy individuals but also the most common cause of fungal nosocomial blood stream infections, associated with high morbidity and mortality. As such life-threatening infections often disseminate from superficial mucosal infections we aimed to study the use of probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) in prevention of mucosal C. albicans infections. Here, we demonstrate that LGG protects oral epithelial tissue from damage caused by C. albicans in our in vitro model of oral candidiasis. Furthermore, we provide insights into the mechanisms behind this protection and dissect direct and indirect effects of LGG on C. albicans pathogenicity. C. albicans viability was not affected by LGG. Instead, transcriptional profiling using RNA-Seq indicated dramatic metabolic reprogramming of C. albicans. Additionally, LGG had a significant impact on major virulence attributes, including adhesion, invasion, and hyphal extension, whose reduction, consequently, prevented epithelial damage. This was accompanied by glucose depletion and repression of ergosterol synthesis, caused by LGG, but also due to blocked adhesion sites. Therefore, LGG protects oral epithelia against C. albicans infection by preventing fungal adhesion, invasion and damage, driven, at least in parts, by metabolic reprogramming due to nutrient limitation caused by LGG.
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A few studies have examined the anti-adhesion of C. albicans on oral epithelial cells.
“A few studies have examined the anti-adhesion of C. albicans on oral epithelial cells.15”
From Aggregation and adhesion ability of various probiotic strains and Candida species: An in vitro study (2024) · cites this paper as [15]
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References 52 · Cited by 59
- Authors
- Mailänder-Sánchez, D., Braunsdorf, C., Grumaz, C., Müller, C., Lorenz, S., Stevens, P., Wagener, J., Hebecker, B., Hube, B., Bracher, F., Sohn, K., & Schaller, M.
- Affiliations
- Universitätsklinikum Tübingen (DE)
- Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology (DE)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
- University of Stuttgart (DE)
- Leibniz-Institut für Naturstoff-Forschung und Infektionsbiologie e. V. - Hans-Knöll-Institut (HKI) (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Schaller, Martin
- ORCID
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2017-10-12
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- e0184438
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5638248
- OpenAlex
- W2763263488
- Cited by
- 59
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 7
- FWCI
- 6.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Aberdeen University Research Archive (Aberdeen University) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Open access LMU (Ludwid Maxmilian's Universitat Munchen) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Publikationsdatenbank der Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Fraunhofer-Publica (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Graduiertenkolleg 685)
- Dr. Manfred Plempel-foundation
- Dr. Siegried Stettendorf-foundation
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (FKZ 031L0001A, FKZ 01EO1002)
- Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (GZ:HE7565/1-1)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Probiotics and Fermented Foods
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Antifungal resistance and susceptibility
- Health Sciences › Dentistry › Periodontics › Oral microbiology and periodontitis research
- Keywords
- Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, Candida albicans, oral candidiasis, probiotics, antifungal defense, fungal adhesion, nutrient depletion, glucose depletion, ergosterol biosynthesis, metabolic reprogramming, hyphal extension, epithelial damage
- MeSH terms
- Antifungal Agents, Bacterial Adhesion, Candida albicans, Candidiasis, Cross Infection, Culture Media, Epithelial Cells, Glucose, Humans, Mouth, Biofilms, Probiotics, Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus
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