ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Infectious Agents and Disease
This article is part of the Research TopicPathogenic Gammaproteobacteria: Novel Insights into Virulence Mechanisms and Therapeutic InterventionView all 10 articles
The probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardii CNCM I-745 prevents autophagy in macrophages and epithelial cells infected with Vibrio parahaemolyticus
Provisionally accepted
Rodolphe Pontier-Bres1
Dorota Czerucka1,2*- 1Centre Scientifique de Monaco, Monaco-Ville, Monaco
- 2Department of Biomedicine, Scientific Center of Monaco, Monaco, Monaco
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Although some pathogens neutralize autophagy to replicate within host cells, others exploit autophagy to induce cell death and lysis and thus acquire nutrients or escape the immune response. Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp, a marine bacterium that can infect humans) exerts cytotoxicity by inducing autophagy; this is followed by cell rounding and cell lysis. The probiotic yeast strain Saccharomyces boulardii CNCM I-745 (S.boulardii) has been shown to prevent infection by enteropathogenic bacteria. Here, we investigated the in vitro effects of S. boulardii on cytotoxicity and autophagy induced by Vp infection of two epithelial cell lines (HeLa and T84) and macrophage-like cells (RAW264.7). To that end, Vp-infected cells were exposed to S. boulardii cotreatment or pretreatment regimens. Pretreatment with S. boulardii of epithelial cells before infection by Vp was associated with a lower number of live intracellular bacteria, less Vp-induced morphological changes, and lower release of lactate dehydrogenase from infected cells. Importantly treatment with S. boulardii were associated with a lower degree of autophagy in Vp-infected epithelial cells and macrophage-like cells. Pretreatment and cotreatment with S.boulardii of epithelial cells downregulated the phosphorylation of the mitogen-activated kinases ERK1/2, JNK and p38 induced by Vp infection. In RAW264.7 cells, Vp infection induced the activation of JNK and p38 but only JNK phosphorylation was downregulated by S. boulardii. Taken as a whole, our data indicate that S.boulardii exerts an anticytotoxic effect on epithelial cells and prevents the Vp-induced autophagy of epithelial cells and macrophage-like cells. Our results suggest that the administration of probiotic S.boulardii CNCM I-745 could help to mitigate the effects of food-associated Vp infections.
Keywords: Autophagy, Infection, probiotic, Saccharomyces boulardii CNCMI-745, Vibrio parahaemolyticus
Received: 22 Dec 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Pontier-Bres and Czerucka. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dorota Czerucka
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