Editorial: Probiotics for Global Health: Advances, Applications and Challenges

Arun K B¹P Nisha²Astghik Zaveni Pepoyan^3*STAVROS PLESSAS⁴Natasa Golic⁵

• ¹CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, India
• ²CSIR National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, India
• ³Armenian National Agrarian University, Yerevan, Armenia
• ⁴Democritus University of Thrace, Orestiada, Greece
• ⁵Univerzitet u Beogradu, Belgrade, Serbia

In recent decades, probiotics have become a central focus in biomedical and nutritional sciences due to their ability to support host health, prevent disease, and counteract dysbiosis. Given the rising global burden of diseases, there is an urgent need for safe, sustainable, and accessible interventions to complement conventional therapies. Probiotics, defined as live microorganisms that confer a health benefit when administered in adequate amounts, represent a promising strategy to improve public health across diverse populations and life stages. This Research Topic was conceived to examine the role of probiotics in advancing global health and contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3): "Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages." The contributions published here highlight the multifaceted impact of probiotics on human well-being, spanning infectious disease prevention, management of chronic conditions, maternal and infant health, mental health, and the mitigation of antimicrobial resistance.A consistent theme is the ability of probiotics to reduce pathogen colonization, enhance mucosal defenses, and modulate immune responses, offering cost-effective approaches to alleviating infectious disease in vulnerable populations. Probiotics also help manage non-communicable diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disorders, diabetes, and obesity by modulating metabolism, reducing inflammation, and strengthening the gut barrier. Probiotic interventions further support maternal health and infant development, while early-life supplementation can reduce the risk of neonatal infections, allergies, and gastrointestinal disorders.Probiotics are increasingly studied in the gut-brain axis, with evidence of their impact on neurotransmitters, neuroinflammation, and stress. Finally, their contribution to combating antimicrobial resistance (AR) emphasizes their global relevance for both medicine and agriculture.Taken together, this Research Topic synthesizes recent advances, highlighting both opportunities and challenges of probiotic science, and underscores their potential to transform preventive health strategies and therapeutic interventions in line with global health priorities. Current Research Topic brought together 31 unique contributions, collectively illustrating the breadth and diversification of probiotic research (Table 1). A clear taxonomic pattern emerges, reflecting both the maturity of classical probiotic investigations and the growing interest in non-traditional microbial candidates.The Lactobacillus lineage, including Lacticaseibacillus, Limosilactobacillus, and Lactiplantibacillus species, was by far the most represented group. Twelve studies, presented, for example, by Wang et al.; Kiousi et al.; Dong et al., Zhang et al., account for almost 39% of the collected works. Their predominance reflects long-standing GRAS status of lactobacilli, resilience in gastrointestinal environments, immunomodulatory mechanisms, and wide availability in food and pharmaceutical markets.By contrast, only two articles specifically addressed the genus Bifidobacterium (Ma et al., 2024;Sarita et al., 2024), one of which is a general review covering multiple probiotics (Sarita et al., 2024). Despite the genus' central role in early-life microbiota, immune development, and pediatric health, this limited representation underscores both a gap and an opportunity for further exploration of bifidobacterial strains in clinical and nutritional contexts.Another single study was dedicated to Bacillus spore-formers, specifically Bacillus coagulans (Kallur et al., 2024). With its exceptional resistance to heat, acidity, and processing stress, B. coagulans is gaining recognition as a robust probiotic candidate for scalable food and nutraceutical applications.In addition, next-generation probiotics received initial but promising attention. An article examined Akkermansia muciniphila (Lu et al., 2024), reflecting the field's gradual shift toward precision microbiome modulation and individualized interventions for metabolic and inflammatory disorders.Finally, eight articles explored non-traditional and emerging taxa, including Enterococcus, Blautia, Weizmannella, and even fungal candidates such as Aspergillus. Examples include the characterization of Blautia producta for its anti-inflammatory effects (Chen et al., 2025) and Enterococcus casseliflavus for its safety profile and immunoregulatory potential (Li et al., 2025). These contributions highlight the expanding search for alternative probiotics beyond the traditional lactobacilli and bifidobacteria.Taken together, the taxonomic distribution across this Research Topic reveals a dual narrative: the continued centrality of lactobacilli as model probiotics on the one hand, and on the other, the diversification of microbial candidates that may offer novel solutions to global health challenges. This balance underscores how probiotic science is simultaneously building on established foundations while opening to innovation and expansion into underexplored taxa. A major portion of recent studies in this Research Topic focused on the diverse functional roles of lactobacilli, reaffirming their centrality in probiotic science and their evolution into models for nextgeneration functional and therapeutic interventions. L. reuteri has demonstrated immunomodulatory effects in allergic diseases, restoring Treg/Th17 balance and identifying luteolin as a key anti-inflammatory metabolite (Zhang et al., 2025). Genomic and safety evaluations of Lcb. paracasei and Lcb. casei confirmed absence of virulence and AR genes, supporting their use in food and nutraceutical applications (Chen et al., 2025). Similarly, Lpb. plantarum L19 exhibits strain-specific antioxidant and stress resistance traits, highlighting its potential to mitigate oxidative stress, for example under heat stress in livestock (Wang et al., 2024). Comprehensive analyses of Lcb. paracasei LC86 and Lcb. casei LC89 further confirmed their safety through genomic and phenotypic assessments and in vivo acute toxicity studies (Chen et al., 2025). Beyond gastrointestinal health, lactobacilli have shown potential to adsorb microplastics and reduce intestinal accumulation and inflammation (Teng et al., 2025), and to reinforce the host-pathogen interface by reducing Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli adhesion and epithelial cell death (Kiousi et al., 2024). Encapsulation of probiotics and synbiotics has been highlighted as a strategy to enhance survival and expand applications in immune, metabolic, and neurological health (Sarita et al., 2024). Mechanistic studies on Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus LRa05 showed modulation of cytokines, oxidative stress, and gut microbiota, while engineering of Lcb. paracasei EG005 to enhance superoxide dismutase activity illustrates precision probiotics with tailored antioxidant capacity (Dong et al., 2024;Kim et al., 2024). Other strains demonstrated targeted health effects, including prevention of constipation via microbiota modulation by Lcb. rhamnosus Glory LG12 (Ma et al., 2025), biofilm formation and antioxidant activity of Ligilactobacillus salivarius LS-ARS2 (Patra et al., 2025), and mitigation of heat stress in dairy cows by Lpb. plantarum L19 (Wang et al., 2024). Lpb. plantarum strains ONU 12 and ONU 355, along with Lcb. casei ATCC 393, inhibited hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma cell proliferation, synergized with chemotherapeutics, and induced apoptosis and senescence (Duduyemi et al., 2024). Lcb. casei KACC92338 exhibited antioxidant, stress-tolerance, and antimicrobial properties with genomic safety, highlighting its probiotic potential (Kandasamy et al., 2024).These studies confirm the central role of lactobacilli while showing their expanding applications, from allergy and oncology to environmental health, within the broader One Health framework. The genus Bifidobacterium is a cornerstone of the gut microbiota in early life and remains a central focus in probiotic research due to its strain-specific roles in maintaining intestinal and systemic health. Among the reviewed works, Bifidobacterium spp. demonstrates key physiological effects including enhancement of mucosal barrier integrity, immune modulation, and antagonism toward pathogenic microbes. These studies highlight diverse therapeutic potential, ranging from the alleviation of metabolic and neuroinflammatory markers to the improvement of inflammatory bowel disease when Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lacti XLTG11 was combined with mesalazine, resulting in superior anti-inflammatory and microbiota-modulating effects compared to either treatment alone. Furthermore, several works explore synergistic combinations of Bifidobacterium spp. with other probiotics/prebiotics (Ma et al., 2024), suggesting that multi-strain or synbiotic formulations may provide enhanced outcomes. Taken together, the current evidence consolidates the position of Bifidobacterium spp. as crucial contributors to gut-brain and gut-immune homeostasis, underlining their future relevance in both clinical and functional food applications. Seidler et al. provided a comprehensive review of the postbiotic potential of Aspergillus oryzae, traditionally used in East Asian food fermentation, highlighting its ability to modulate the gut microbiome, enhance epithelial barrier function, influence immune responses, and impact metabolic and neural signaling. This work underscores the translational potential of fungal-derived postbiotics for gut health and related therapeutic interventions, while emphasizing the importance of standardization and quality control. Blautia producta 1009924, isolated from human feces, exhibits notable probiotic potential (Chen et al., 2025). In a DSS-induced zebrafish intestinal inflammation model, it reduced ROS production, modulated TLR4/NF-κB signaling, decreased pro-inflammatory cytokines, and enhanced SCFA levels, improving intestinal tissue integrity. Similarly, E. casseliflavus SHAMU-QH-02, isolated from the human biliary tract, shows broad-spectrum antagonistic activity, antioxidant and antiinflammatory effects, and safety for functional applications (Li et al., 2025). Recent genome sequencing of four Akkermansia spp. human isolates revealed low genetic risk, with limited AR and virulence genes, and functional annotations enriched in metabolic pathways. These strains support gut barrier integrity, modulate host metabolism, and influence immune signaling, highlighting their potential for precision microbiome-targeted interventions in metabolic and inflammatory disorders (Lu et al., 2024). Weizmannella coagulans BC99 exhibits notable probiotic and anti-inflammatory properties (Gao et al., 2024). In a Caenorhabditis elegans hyperuricemia model, it reduced uric acid and xanthine oxidase levels, decreased ROS production, and improved lifespan and motility. Mechanistically, it activates DAF-16 and SKN-1 transcription factors, enhancing stress-response gene expression and antioxidant enzyme activity. Metabolomic analysis indicated regulation of amino acid, glycerophospholipid, and purine metabolism. These findings support W. coagulans BC99 as a safe and effective candidate for managing hyperuricemia and related metabolic disturbances.Peng et al. demonstrated that the probiotic Bacteroides fragilis (BF839), extensively used in China to alleviate gut microbiota dysbiosis, can enhance tumor sensitivity to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) via activation of the cyclic GMP-AMP synthase-stimulator of interferon genes (cGAS-STING) signaling pathway, suggesting that modulation of the gut microbiota with BF839 may represent a promising strategy to improve ICI efficacy in cancer therapy. Ma et al. reported that a synbiotic treatment combining low-, medium-, and high-dose mixed probiotics (Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis XLTG11, Lcb. paracasei Glory LP16, Lpb. plantarum CCFM8661) with oligofructose alleviated DSS-induced colitis in mice by reducing inflammation, restoring colon length, enhancing intestinal barrier integrity, and increasing gut microbiota diversity and SCFA production, with therapeutic effects dependent on the probiotic dose. Synbiotic and multistrain formulations, combining Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and Enterococcus species, have demonstrated enhanced probiotic efficacy (Liao et al., 2025;Ma et al., 2024;Teng et al., 2024). These combinations improve SCFA production, restore microbiota diversity, and suppress intestinal inflammation more effectively than single strains. Such synergistic interventions highlight the translational potential of multistrain probiotics for precision microbiome modulation and therapeutic applications in gastrointestinal health.In addition, several recent studies, while not directly testing probiotics, provide important insights into gut microbiota modulation and host health, which have clear implications for probiotic research. For example, supplementation with Portulaca oleracea (purslane) in aging rats improved gut morphology, increased fecal short-chain fatty acids, and shifted microbial composition by reducing Firmicutes and Fusobacteria while modulating metabolic pathways (Deng et al., 2025). These findings suggest that dietary interventions can target microbiota composition and metabolic output in ways similar to probiotic supplementation.Similarly, in the context of infectious diseases such as cholera, probiotics are highlighted as a potential adjunctive strategy to enhance gut barrier function, compete with pathogens, and modulate immunity, illustrating their translational potential even in settings traditionally managed by environmental or pharmacological interventions (Chowdhury et al., 2024).Other studies focus on functional metabolites like D-tryptophan, which exhibits antibacterial, immunomodulatory, and anti-biofilm properties (Wang et al., 2025), indicating that dietary or microbial-derived compounds can act synergistically with probiotics to improve host health.Clinical evidence further supports the use of probiotics and synbiotics in metabolic and liver diseases. In NAFLD patients, supplementation with probiotics or synbiotics significantly reduced liver enzymes, liver stiffness, insulin resistance, and BMI, highlighting their therapeutic efficacy (Song et al., 2025).Finally, Mendelian randomization studies linking gut microbiota with trimethylamine-N-oxide levels underscore specific microbial taxa that increase or decrease host susceptibility to metabolic risks (Yu et al., 2024). These mechanistic insights can inform the selection of probiotic strains aimed at modulating cardiovascular risk factors. The assembled articles within this Research Topic collectively highlight the evolution of probiotic research from mechanistic understanding to translational and industrial application. Key themes emerge across taxonomic groups, functional effects, and intervention strategies. A. muciniphila spp. (Lu et al., 2024), support intestinal homeostasis by enhancing epithelial integrity, reducing metabolic endotoxemia, and promoting anti-inflammatory signaling. Similarly, genera such as Blautia producta (Chen et al., 2025), W. coagulans (Gao et al., 2024), and E. casseliflavus SHAMU-QH-02 (Li et al., 2025) exert immunoregulatory and anti-inflammatory effects through SCFA production, ROS modulation, and cytokine regulation. In addition, B. fragilis BF839 has been extensively studied for its ability to modulate gut microbiota and enhance antitumor immunity (Peng et al., 2025). Lactobacillus johnsonii shows promise in digestive health by modulating immunity, enhancing gut barrier function, and maintaining microbiota balance, with future studies needed to clarify its mechanisms and provide experimental support for therapeutic applications (Zhou et al., 2025). In the MASH model, Lcb. rhamnosus GG (LGG) reduced pro-inflammatory cytokines, inhibited TGF-β/SMAD signaling, restored intestinal barrier integrity, and prevented endotoxin translocation, thereby alleviating liver inflammation and fibrosis (Wang et al., 2025). Spore-forming probiotics, exemplified by B. coagulans LMG S-31876 (Kallur et al., 2024), display high thermal stability and support host immunity, lipid metabolism, and stress-related outcomes, highlighting their suitability for robust industrial formulations. Next-generation probiotics, including A. muciniphila (Lu et al., 2024) and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (Song et al., 2025), provide targeted modulation of gut mucosal integrity and SCFAdriven immune balance. Such approaches enable personalized microbiome interventions for metabolic and inflammatory disorders. Synbiotic and multistrain formulations incorporating Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and Enterococcus species (Liao et al., 2025;Ma et al., 2024;Teng et al., 2024) enhance SCFA production, restore microbial diversity, and achieve superior inflammation suppression compared to monostrain interventions. These findings underscore the translational advantage of synergistic formulations for precision microbiota modulation. The field is moving toward practical application, emphasizing strain safety, viability, stability, scalability, and regulatory compliance. Techniques such as encapsulation, lyophilization, and prebiotic co-formulation improve functional performance and shelf stability (Liao et al., 2025;Song et al., 2025. Comprehensive safety profiling, as exemplified by E. casseliflavus SHAMU-QH-02, is critical for regulatory approval (Li et al., 2025).In conclusion, this Research Topic consolidates mechanistic, functional, and translational insights, highlighting the potential of probiotics to shape next-generation health interventions across clinical, nutritional, and industrial domains.