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Probiotic and Safety Properties Screening of Enterococcus faecalis from Healthy Chinese Infants

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the probiotic characteristics and safety of seven Enterococcus faecalis isolates from fecal samples of healthy Chinese infants. We evaluated the isolates’ tolerance to low pH, survival in bile salts and NaCl, adhesion ability, biofilm formation, antimicrobial activity, toxin gene distribution, hemolysis, gelatinase activity, antibiotic resistance, and virulence to Galleria mellonella. All strains survived at pH 5.0, in 7.0% NaCl, and in 3% bile salt. Adhesion to Caco-2 cells was above 10%. Strain A3-1 had higher adhesion ability toward mucin, collagen, and BSA in vitro, better antibacterial activity, and the strongest biofilm production. We detected seven virulence genes with a distribution of asa1 (100%), cylA (71.4%), esp (85.7%), hyl (14.3%), gelE (85.7%), ace (42.9%), and agg (71.4%). Although all strains were γ-hemolytic, none showed gelatinase activity based on physiological activity detection. All isolates were susceptible to benzylpenicillin, ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, moxifloxacin, tigecycline, nitrofurantoin, linezolid, and vancomycin; they were not susceptible to erythromycin, quinupristin/dalofopine, and clindamycin. The virulence test of G. mellonella showed that, except for strains 106-1 and 113-1, the other strains had toxicity lower than 10%. Strain A3-1 may have the greatest potential to be developed as a probiotic.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81673199), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (xjh012019054) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi province, China (2018JM7054).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, P.O.44, NO.76 Yanta West Road, Xi’an, 710061, Shaanxi, China

    Juan Wang, Xiaohong Tuo, Yue Cheng, Jie Wei, Kaichong Jiang, Jia Lv, Omolade Monisayo Adediji & Bei Han

  2. Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Rong Da

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  1. Juan Wang
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Wang, J., Da, R., Tuo, X. et al. Probiotic and Safety Properties Screening of Enterococcus faecalis from Healthy Chinese Infants. Probiotics & Antimicro. Prot. 12, 1115–1125 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12602-019-09625-7

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