Guangqiang Wang

• Professor at University of Shanghai for Science and Technology

Background: Acute pancreatitis (AP) leads to severe inflammation and nutritional deficits, with 80% of severe cases experiencing critical protein loss. Timely enteral nutrition is essential for recovery. This study systematically reviews and analyzes the incidence and predictors of enteral nutrition intolerance (ENI) in AP patients. Methods: Web of...

BACKGROUND Exopolysaccharide (EPS) produced by Streptococcus thermophilus can significantly improve the viscosity, texture and taste of dairy products, which have broad application potential in the food industry. However, EPS production is typically low (< 100 mg L⁻¹) in S. thermophilus, making it difficult to meet industrialization requirements. T...

The Western diet (WD) leads to hepatic lipid metabolism disorders. Previous studies have shown that the bile salt hydrolase 1 (bsh1) gene of Lactobacillus plantarum AR113 attenuates colitis under WD. In this study, we preliminarily explored how AR113 attenuates the hepatic inflammatory response in colitis mice on the WD. Our study suggests that the...

Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by abnormal bone metabolism, where bone resorption outpaces bone formation. In this study, we investigated the key functional components of Lactobacillus plantarum AR495 in mitigating ovariectomy (OVX)-induced osteoporosis in mice. The results indicated that both Lactobacillus plantarum AR495 and its fermenta...

Calcium oxalate stone is the main type of kidney stone, so far there is no specific drug treatment. Here, we screened for oxalate-degrading probiotics and evaluated the potential preventive effect...

The role of mast cells (MCs) in ulcerative colitis (UC) development is controversial. FcεRI, the IgE high-affinity receptor, is known to activate MCs. However, its role in UC remains unclear. In our study, Anti-FcεRI showed highly diagnostic value for UC. FcεRIα knockout in mice ameliorated DSS-induced colitis in a gut microbiota-dependent manner....

A confined environment is a special kind of extreme working environment, and prolonged exposure to it tends to increase psychological stress and trigger rhythmic disorders, emotional abnormalities and other phenomena, thus seriously affecting work efficiency. However, the mechanisms through which confined environments affect human health remain unc...

BACKGROUND Phyllanthus emblica Linn. (PE) is rich in polyphenols, which can be categorized into free and bound phenolics (PEFP and PEBP). This study evaluated the inhibitory effect of PEFB and PEBP on α‐amylase for the first time. The mechanism of the inhibition effect of PEFP and PEBP on α‐amylase was investigated by enzyme inhibition kinetics, mu...

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is one of the metabolic diseases with the highest morbidity rates in the world. Probiotics have positive health impacts on human health and a considerable amount of research has demonstrated their beneficial effects in treating T2DM. However, probiotic intervention in T2DM has complex mechanisms because the pathogene...

BACKGROUND Human serum albumin (HSA) is the most abundant protein in plasma, playing crucial roles in regulating osmotic pressure and maintaining protein homeostasis. It is widely applied in the clinical treatment of various diseases. HSA can be purified from plasma or produced using recombinant DNA technology. Due to the improved efficiency and re...

Effectively managing foodborne pathogens is imperative in food processing, where probiotics play a crucial role in pathogen control. This study focuses on the Lactiplantibacillus plantarum AR113 and its gene knockout strains, exploring their antimicrobial properties against Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Staphylococcus aureus. Antimicrobial assays re...

Lactobacillus plantarum AR495 is a widely used probiotic in treating various digestive diseases, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). However, the specific mechanisms of L. plantarum AR495 relieving IBS remain unclear....

Certain workplaces, like deep-sea voyages, subject workers to chronic psychological stress and circadian rhythm disorders due to confined environments and frequent shifts. In this study, participants lived in a strictly controlled confined environment, and we analyzed the effects of a confined environment on gut microbiota and metabolites. The resu...

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. However, information on stroke-related tongue coating microbiome (TCM) is limited, and whether TCM modulation could benefit for stroke prevention and rehabilitation is unknown. Here, TCM from stroke patients (SP) was characterized using molecular techniques. The occurrence of st...

Phyllanthus emblica Linn. (PE) fresh fruits contain high concentrations of polyphenolics, of which free and bound phenolics are rich in biological activities. In this study, the inhibitory activity and mechanism of PEFP and PEBP on α-glucosidase (α-GLU) were investigated using spectroscopic techniques, kinetic analysis, and molecular docking. The r...

Lactiplantibacillus plantarum is selective for carbohydrate utilization, which is primarily regulated by the catabolic control protein A (ccpA). To investigate the impact of carbohydrate metabolism on the in vivo colonization of L. plantarum AR113, we constructed a ccpA knockout strain (AR113ΔccpA). In vitro assays showed that AR113ΔccpA had a 0.34...

This study investigates the impact of urea and β-GP on the growth of Streptococcus thermophilus S-3, a bacterium commonly used in industrial fermentation processes. Through a series of growth experiments, transcriptome, metabolome, and omics-based analyses, the research demonstrates that both urea and β-GP can enhance the biomass of S. thermophilus...

Ligilactobacillus salivarius (basonym: Lactobacillus salivarius, L. salivarius) is a type of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) commonly found in the oropharyngeal-gastrointestinal tract (OGT). It has gained significant attention due to its probiotic and functional properties as well as its various health-promoting roles. L. salivarius strains exhibit stro...

Osteoporosis is a common skeletal disease, especially for the bone health of menopausal women. It is reported that the changes of intestinal environment could affect the occurrence and development of osteoporosis. This study aims to explore the effects of different gut microbiota by antibiotics and bone health in ovariectomized (OVX) C57BL/6 mice a...

BACKGROUND Streptococcus thermophilus is an important strain widely used in dairy fermentation, with distinct urea metabolism characteristics compared to other lactic acid bacteria. The conversion of urea by S. thermophilus has been shown to affect the flavor and acidification characteristics of milk. Additionally, urea metabolism has been found to...

Probiotics have great potential in regulating intestinal pain. In this study, the effects of Lactobacillus plantarum AR495 on the visceral sensitivity and gut microbiota of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) rats were studied. The results showed that tryptase released after mast cell activation and degranulation plays a key role in visceral pain, and L...

Probiotics could effectively eliminate excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated during aging or lipid metabolism disorders, but their mechanism is unclear. The major purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanism of Lactiplantibacillus plantarun AR113 alleviating oxidative stress injury in the D-galactose induced aging mice. The resul...

BACKGROUND The two essential editing elements in the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) editing system are promoter and single‐guide RNA (sgRNA), the latter of which determines whether Cas protein can precisely target a specific location to edit the targeted gene. Therefore, the selection of sgRNA is crucial to the e...

BACKGROUND It has been well accepted that lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are the main bacterial genera present during the brewing of Chinese rice wine (CRW). LAB plays a decisive role in the flavor quality of CRW; however, its application in CRW has previously been overlooked. Therefore, effects of different LAB as co‐fermenter on the flavor characteri...

Bifidobacteria are representative intestinal probiotics that have extremely high application value in the food and medical fields. However, the lack of molecular biology tools limits the research on functional genes and mechanisms of bifidobacteria. The application of an accurate and efficient CRISPR system to genome engineering can fill the gap in...

Western diet is thought to increase susceptibility to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and probiotics are a potential therapeutic agent for IBD. This study revealed the effects of Lactobacillus plantarum AR113 and L. plantarum AR113Δbsh1 on a dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis mouse model under the Western diet (WD). After four weeks of...

Membrane characteristics are determined by the fatty acids composition, which affects survival rates after freeze-drying. However, it is unknown which composition provides the greatest effect. In this study, we found that the addition of Tween 80 and Tween 20 significantly increased survival rates of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, which reached a m...

Bile salt hydrolases are thought to be the gatekeepers of bile acid metabolism. To study the role of BSH in colitis, we investigated the ameliorative effects of different BSH-knockout strains of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum AR113. The results showed that L. plantarum Δbsh 1 and Δbsh 3 treatments did not improve body weight and alleviate the hypera...

Long-term exposure to adverse life events that provoke acute or chronic psychological stress (hereinafter "stress") can negatively affect physical health and even increase susceptibility to psychological illnesses, such as anxiety and depression. As a part of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) released fro...

Confined environments increase psychological stress and lead to health problems such as abnormal mood and rhythm disruption. However, the mechanism by which confined environments impact health has remained unclear. Significant correlations have been reported between psychological stress and changes in gut microbiota. Therefore, we investigated the...

As a thickening or stabilizing agent, exopolysaccharide (EPS) can significantly enhance food texture. However, the conventional analytical and screening methods of EPS have been unable to meet the current needs of industrial production, owing to low efficiency and heavy time-consumption. A simple and rapid qualitative/quantitative method is needed...

Acetylation modification was conducted to improve the water-solubility and solution properties of xyloglucan from tamarind seeds (TSX). Three acetylated TSX with different degree of substitution (DS) were successfully prepared, and their structure and molecular parameters were investigated by FT-IR, NMR, and high-performance size exclusion chromato...

Bifidobacteria are representative intestinal probiotics that have extremely high application value in the food and medical fields. However, the lack of molecular biology tools limits the research on functional genes and mechanisms of bifidobacteria . The application of accurate and efficient CRISPR system to genome engineering can fill the gap in e...

Lactobacillus salivarius AR809 was isolated from a healthy adult oral cavity with multiple probiotic properties, such as high antimicrobial activity, adhesion to the oral epithelium, resistance to acidic pH, bile, lysozyme, and H2O2. In this study, to investigate the genetic basis on probiotic potential and identify the functional genes in the stra...

The probiotics market is one of the fastest growing segments of the food industry as there is growing scientific evidence of the positive health effects of probiotics on consumers. Currently, there are various forms of probiotic products and they can be categorized according to dosage form and the site of action. To increase the effectiveness of pr...

BACKGROUND Probiotic lactic acid bacterium Lactiplantibacillus plantarum is widely used in the dairy and other fermented food industries. L. plantarum AR113 harbors a C30 carotenoid operon crtNM based on genomic analysis, but the yield of C30 carotenoid is only 8.1 μg g‐1 DCW. RESULTS To improve the productivity of C30 carotenoid, crtNM from L. pl...

Lactobacillus salivarius is an important probiotic lactic acid bacterium that plays a major role in innate and acquired immunity. It has gained much attention in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology owing to its probiotic properties. However, few well-characterized constitutive promoters are available to modulate L. salivarius gene expressio...

Antrodia camphorata is rich in a variety of bioactive ingredients; however, the utilization efficiency of the residue of A. camphorata is low, resulting in serious waste. It is necessary to deeply study the functional components of A. camphorata residues to achieve high-value utilization. In this study, the components, structural characteristics, a...

Probiotics have attracted much attention due to their ability to modulate host intestinal microbe, participate in nutrient metabolism or immunomodulatory. Both inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and bowel cancer are digestive system disease, which have become a global public health problem due to their unclear etiology, difficult to cure, and repeate...

Lactiplantibacillus plantarum is an important member of the probiotic family and colonization of the host intestinal is essential for its continued probiotic function. The mechanism of L. plantarum intestinal colonization has not been elucidated until now, an important reason being that the colonization process is influenced by a number of factors....

BACKGROUND Streptococcus thermophilus is a major starter used in the dairy industry and it could improve the flavor of fermented products. It is necessary to improve biomass of S. thermophilus for its application and industrialization. The utilization of carbon sources directly affects the biomass of S. thermophilus. Therefore, the carbohydrate met...

Simple Summary Osteoporosis-related fractures are among the most common complications found in postmenopausal adults, which results in considerable economic impacts. Most treatments for osteoporosis increase bone formation or decrease bone resorption. While estrogen replacement therapy may be the gold standard for the treatment of osteoporosis, it...

The resistance of Lactobacillus plantarum to vancomycin depends on its peptidoglycan composition. Vancomycin has poor binding affinity with peptidoglycan precursors ending in D-alanyl-D-lactate (D-Ala-D-Lac) but binds strongly to peptidoglycan precursors ending in D-alanyl-D-alanine (D-Ala-D-Ala), resulting in resistance and sensitivity, respective...

Osteoporosis is a common skeletal disease in which bone resorption exceeds bone formation. Intestinal health has been linked to reduced osteoporosis. The aim of this study was to compare the anti-osteoporotic and intestinal health effects of two strains of Lactobacillus plantarum (AR237 and AR495) in ovariectomized (ovx) C57BL/6 mice. The results s...

The solid-state fermentation of Antrodia camphorata could produce a variety of ubiquinone compounds, such as antroquinonol (AQ), AQB, 4-acetyl-AQB and so on. However, ubiquinone compounds are hardly synthesized during liquid-state fermentation (LSF) and the mechanism of synthesis remain unclear. To investigates the influence of different precursors...

BACKGROUND Adhesion is considered important for Lactiplantibacillus to persist in the human gut and for it to exert probiotic effects. Lactiplantibacillus plantarum contains a considerable number and variety of genes encoding bile salt hydrolases (bsh), but their effects on microbial adhesion remain poorly understood. To clarify the effects of four...

Freeze drying is one of the most convenient ways to preserve microorganisms, but in the freeze-drying process, strains will inevitably suffer varying degrees of damage under different conditions. The deterioration of cell membrane integrity is one of the main forms of damage. The type and ratio of fatty acids in the cell membrane affect its charact...

The gut microbiota plays a vital role in human health. Many studies have shown that an imbalance of in the intestinal flora not only can cause intestinal diseases; but also is closely related to obesity, diabetes and other chronic metabolic diseases. Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms, that can colonize the human intestinal tract to impr...

Antroquinonol (AQ) as one of the most potent bioactive components in Antrodia cinnamomea (Fomitopsidaceae) shows a broad spectrum of anticancer effects. The lower yield of AQ has hampered its possible clinical application. AQ production may potentially be improved by genetic engineering. In this study, the protoplast-polyethylene glycol method comb...

This study aimed to investigate the protective effect of Antrodin A (AdA) from Antrodia camphorata (A. camphorata) mycelium on alcohol-induced gut microbiota and liver metabolomic disorders. In acute alcoholic liver injury mice, AdA ameliorated alcoholic exposure-induced hepatic lipid deposition (TC and TG), oxidative stress (MDA), inflammation (TN...

The beneficial effects of probiotics on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are well known, although an understanding of colonisation by endogenous and exogenous bacterial strains and the effects on intestinal inflammation remains elusive. In this study, the colonisation of endogenous Lactobacillus reuteri R28 and exogenous Lactobacillus plantarum AR1...

The resistance of probiotics to bile salts is critical to their survive in the intestinal tract. Bile salt hydrolase (BSH) catalyzes the deconjugation of conjugated bile salts and is thought to be involved in bile salt resistance. The aim of this study was to explore the roles of different bsh genes in the bile salt resistance of Lactobacillus plan...

Freeze-drying is one of the most commonly used methods of bacteria preservation. During this process, cryoprotectants can greatly reduce cellular damage. Micromolecular cryoprotectants have been widely adopted but have limited selectivity and protective effects. Therefore, explorations of other types of cryoprotectants are needed. This study aimed...

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) includes a range of liver diseases that occur in the absence of significant alcohol consumption. The probiotic bacterial strains Lactobacillus casei LC2W, which overexpresses the bile salt hydrolase (BSH) gene (referred to as pWQH01), and Lactobacillus plantarum AR113, which exhibits high BSH a...

Monascus spp. are fungi that have been applied in food production for centuries and produce a range of bioactive metabolites. The objective of this study was to investigate the characteristics of proteolysis, lipolysis, textural and sensory properties of internal mold-ripened cheese ripened by Monascus fumeus x08. The contents of pH 4.6-soluble nit...

A comparison study between whole grain and rice bran to evaluate the antioxidant activity and starch digestion property of black rice was conducted. Total phenolics content (TPC) and total anthocyanins content (TAC) analysis found that TPC and TAC contribution of rice bran to the whole grain were over 73 and 91%, respectively. Cyanidin-3-glucoside...

Increasing knowledge about lactic acid bacteria as fermentation starters and probiotics to improve health has led to a growing awareness of their application potential. Despite a long history of applying cryoprotectants, the maintenance of probiotic viability is still a major challenge. In this study, we implemented a strategy and explored its mech...

Probiotics are a potential treatment agent for IBD. In this study, the effects of probiotics on intestinal immune responses and gut microbiota in colitis were investigated. The result showed that L. plantarum AR113 and L. casei AR342 were 2–3 times more effective than other strains to alleviate epithelial damage indicators, improve colon length (+1...

This study investigated the intervention effects of Lactobacillus casei LC2W in murine (SPF C57BL/c) challenge infection models induced by Escherichia coli O157: H7. Mice were fed Streptomycin with water for 3 days prior to intragastric gavage by E. coli O157: H7 (Control) or L. casei LC2W together with E. coli O157: H7(Intervention) to explore the...

Lactobacillus plantarum AR113, a strain isolated from Chinese traditional pickle, was evaluated for its survival capacity under different stress conditions such as low pH, high bile, high osmotic pressure and antibiotics, and its probiotic characteristics were measured subsequently. Furthermore, the mechanism of antioxidant in L. plantarum AR113 wa...

Lactobacillus salivarius AR809 from healthy human pharynx, is a newly discovered probiotic strain possessing potential ability to adhere to the pharyngeal epithelium and inhibit Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus)-induced inflammatory response. Pharyngeal spray administration of AR809 exhibited protective effects in a S. aureus-induced mouse model of...

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) is a strain of the human pathogenic E. coli bacteria that can cause serious foodborne diseases. Many probiotics have antagonistic effects on EHEC, but few studies have examined the interactions between probiotics and EHEC in vivo. To investigate the colonization of Lactobacillus casei LC2W and its inhibitor...

A new milk-clotting enzyme (MCE) was produced from Bacillus licheniformis BL312. The characteristics of BL312 MCE were compared with those of Calf rennet, R. miehei MCE, and Chymopapain. BL312 MCE showed a remarkable activity of 5291 SU/mg after purification by ammonium sulfate fractionation and DEAE-Sepharose Fast Flow, which yielded 5.09-fold pur...

Hypercholesterolemia is closely associated with cardiovascular diseases. Supplementation with probiotics has been shown to contribute to improving lipid metabolism. The probiotic mechanisms of cholesterol reduction are complicated and remain unclear....

Adhesion to epithelial cells is considered important for Lactobacillus to exert probiotic effects. In this study, we found that trypsin treatment decreased the adhesion ability of Lactobacillus plantarum AR326 and AR269, which exhibit good adhesion ability, and surface proteins extracts increased the adhesion of the strains with poor adhesion abili...

In order to screening new Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains to alleviating liver injury induced by oxidized oil, we isolated and screened LAB from Chinese fermented foods. Lactobacillus plantarum AR113, Pediococcus pentosaceus AR243, and Lactobacillus plantarum AR501 showed higher scavenging activity of α, α-Diphenyl-β-Picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free r...

BACKGROUND Antroquinonol, a ubiquinone derivative that shows anticancer and anti‐inflammatory activities, is produced during solid‐state fermentation of Antrodia camphorata; however, it cannot be biosynthesized via conventional submerged fermentation. RESULTS A method for enhancing the biosynthesis of antroquinonol by controlling pH and adding an...

Traditional sterilization leads to poor vinosity of Chinese rice wine (CRW). Effects of boiling, ultra-high temperature (UHT) and high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) on CRW quality were investigated. Thermal treatment resulted in a decrease of total free amino-acids (FAA), whereas HHP-treatment caused an increase. However, UHT and HHP treatments had li...

The optimal cryoprotectants combination, freezing rate and thawing temperature were investigated for preserving Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus casei during freezing and frozen storage. It is indicated that, among all cryoprotectants applied singly, 150 g/L and 100 g/L sucrose provided the best protective effect for L. plantarum and L. ca...

Lactobacillus casei LC2W, a probiotic strain, can produce exopolysaccharide (EPS) with anti-hypertensive bioactivity. The relationship between eps genes and EPS synthesis in LC2W due to unclear regulation mechanism of EPS biosynthesis was investigated. The several relevant genes in EPS biosynthetic gene cluster were deleted, overexpressed and compl...

This study was to investigate the anti-inflammatory activities in vitro of various carrageenans (Car) fractions (κ-, ι-, and λ-types) with well characterized molecular properties, using murine microglia BV-2 cell line treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as model. It is indicated that pretreatments with the oligosaccharide fractions from κ- or ι-c...

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been used as ingredients of functional foods to promote health and prevent diseases because of their beneficial effects. This study aimed to investigate the antioxidative effects of LAB on the hepatotoxicity in D‐galactose‐induced aging mice. LAB were isolated from the traditional Chinese fermented foods and screened...

This study was to identify active pectin fragments of high in vitro anti-proliferation activities against human colon adenocarcinoma Caco-2 cells, using various pectin fragment preparations dominant with rhamnogalacturonan I (RG-I), rhamnogalacturonan II (RG-II), and galacturonic acid oligomers (GAOS). The samples were prepared from citrus high and...