Enteric Delivery of Probiotics: Challenges, Techniques, and Activity Assays
Probiotics, as live microbial agents, play a pivotal role in modulating host microbiota balance, enhancing immunity, and improving gastrointestinal health. However, their application is hindered by critical challenges, such as inactivation during processing, storage, and gastrointestinal delivery, a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Foods |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/14/13/2318 |
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| author | Chunying Sun Zhidong Zhang Yantong Sun Xueyuan Sun Yan Jin Jingwen Zhu Jiaxin Yu Tao Wu |
| author_facet | Chunying Sun Zhidong Zhang Yantong Sun Xueyuan Sun Yan Jin Jingwen Zhu Jiaxin Yu Tao Wu |
| author_sort | Chunying Sun |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Probiotics, as live microbial agents, play a pivotal role in modulating host microbiota balance, enhancing immunity, and improving gastrointestinal health. However, their application is hindered by critical challenges, such as inactivation during processing, storage, and gastrointestinal delivery, as well as low colonization efficiency. This article comprehensively reviews recent advances in probiotic delivery systems, focusing on innovative technologies, including hydrogels, nanocoatings, emulsions, and core–shell microgels. It provides an in-depth analysis of natural polyphenol-based nanocoatings and metal–phenolic network (MPN) single-cell encapsulation strategies for enhancing bacterial survival rates while highlighting the unique potential of microalgae-based bio-carriers in targeted delivery. Research demonstrates that well-designed edible delivery systems can effectively preserve probiotic viability and enable controlled intestinal release, offering novel strategies to reshape a healthy gut microbiome. While these systems show promise in maintaining probiotic activity and gut colonization, challenges remain in safety, scalable production, and clinical translation. Overcoming these barriers is crucial to fully harnessing probiotics for human health. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-71de04b487184fe2938bd79524fc7fd8 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2304-8158 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Foods |
| spelling | doaj-art-71de04b487184fe2938bd79524fc7fd82025-08-20T03:50:17ZengMDPI AGFoods2304-81582025-06-011413231810.3390/foods14132318Enteric Delivery of Probiotics: Challenges, Techniques, and Activity AssaysChunying Sun0Zhidong Zhang1Yantong Sun2Xueyuan Sun3Yan Jin4Jingwen Zhu5Jiaxin Yu6Tao Wu7State Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Food Biotechnology Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education, College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Food Biotechnology Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education, College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Food Biotechnology Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education, College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Food Biotechnology Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education, College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Food Biotechnology Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education, College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Food Biotechnology Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education, College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Food Biotechnology Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education, College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Food Biotechnology Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education, College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, ChinaProbiotics, as live microbial agents, play a pivotal role in modulating host microbiota balance, enhancing immunity, and improving gastrointestinal health. However, their application is hindered by critical challenges, such as inactivation during processing, storage, and gastrointestinal delivery, as well as low colonization efficiency. This article comprehensively reviews recent advances in probiotic delivery systems, focusing on innovative technologies, including hydrogels, nanocoatings, emulsions, and core–shell microgels. It provides an in-depth analysis of natural polyphenol-based nanocoatings and metal–phenolic network (MPN) single-cell encapsulation strategies for enhancing bacterial survival rates while highlighting the unique potential of microalgae-based bio-carriers in targeted delivery. Research demonstrates that well-designed edible delivery systems can effectively preserve probiotic viability and enable controlled intestinal release, offering novel strategies to reshape a healthy gut microbiome. While these systems show promise in maintaining probiotic activity and gut colonization, challenges remain in safety, scalable production, and clinical translation. Overcoming these barriers is crucial to fully harnessing probiotics for human health.https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/14/13/2318probioticsdelivery systemshydrogelnanocoatingemulsioncore–shell microgel |
| spellingShingle | Chunying Sun Zhidong Zhang Yantong Sun Xueyuan Sun Yan Jin Jingwen Zhu Jiaxin Yu Tao Wu Enteric Delivery of Probiotics: Challenges, Techniques, and Activity Assays Foods probiotics delivery systems hydrogel nanocoating emulsion core–shell microgel |
| title | Enteric Delivery of Probiotics: Challenges, Techniques, and Activity Assays |
| title_full | Enteric Delivery of Probiotics: Challenges, Techniques, and Activity Assays |
| title_fullStr | Enteric Delivery of Probiotics: Challenges, Techniques, and Activity Assays |
| title_full_unstemmed | Enteric Delivery of Probiotics: Challenges, Techniques, and Activity Assays |
| title_short | Enteric Delivery of Probiotics: Challenges, Techniques, and Activity Assays |
| title_sort | enteric delivery of probiotics challenges techniques and activity assays |
| topic | probiotics delivery systems hydrogel nanocoating emulsion core–shell microgel |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/14/13/2318 |
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