Lactobacillus reuteri research and medical use, evaluation and review

Lactobacillus reuteri is a probiotic that has various health benefits.

Probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri promotes TNF-induced apoptosis in human myeloid leukemia-derived cells by modulation of NF-kappaB and MAPK signalling.
Cell Microbiol. 2008: Iyer C, Kosters A, Sethi G, Kunnumakkara AB, Aggarwal BB, Versalovic J. Departments of Pathology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
The molecular mechanisms of pro-apoptotic effects of human-derived Lactobacillus reuteri ATCC PTA 6475 were investigated in this study. Lactobacillus reuteri secretes factors that potentiate apoptosis in myeloid leukemia-derived cells induced by tumour necrosis factor (TNF). An improved understanding of Lactobacillus reuteri-mediated effects on apoptotic signalling pathways may facilitate development of future probiotics-based regimens for prevention of colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.

2'-deoxyribosyltransferase from Lactobacillus reuteri: A novel biocatalyst for tailoring nucleosides.
Appl Environ Microbiol. 2010. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, Faculty of Biology, Complutense University of Madrid, C/ José Antonio Nováis Madrid, Spain; and Industrial Biotransformations Service, Scientific Park of Madrid, C/Santiago Grisolía Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain.
A novel nucleoside 2'-deoxyribosyltransferase type II from Lactobacillus reuteri (LrNDT) has been cloned and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The recombinant LrNDT has been structural and functionally characterized. Sedimentation equilibrium analysis revealed a homohexameric molecule of 114 kDa. Circular dichroism studies have showed a secondary structure containing 55 % alpha-helix; 10 % beta-strand; 16 % beta-sheet and 19 % random coil. LrNDT was thermostable with a Tm of 64 degrees C determined by fluorescence, circular dichroism and differential scanning calorimetric studies. The enzyme showed high activity in a broad pH range (4.6-7.9) and was also very stable between pH 4 and 7.9. The optimal temperature activity was 40 degrees C. The recombinant LrNDT was able to synthesize natural and unnatural nucleoside analogues improving activities described in the literature and remarkably, exhibited unexpected new arabinosyltransferase activity, which had not been described so far in this kind of enzymes. Furthermore, synthesis of new arabinonucleosides and 2'-fluoro-deoxyribonucleosides were carried out.