Abstract
Gut microbiota comprises more than 100 trillion microorganisms and plays critical roles in immunity, metabolism, and homeostasis. Its imbalance (dysbiosis) has been associated with gastrointestinal, metabolic, autoimmune, and neurological disorders. On the other hand, probiotics are live microorganisms with beneficial effects that have emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy. Here, we analyzed the impact of Bacillus subtilis CW14 and Propionibacterium freudenreichii ITG P9 probiotics on intestinal epithelial cells from the Caco-2 and HT-29 cell lines, respectively. Using an integrative approach based on bioinformatics tools, we examined differentially expressed genes and protein-protein interactions (PPIs) to establish the impact of these probiotics on gene modulation and their relationship with various human pathologies. The results showed specific effects for each probiotic: B. subtilis CW14 primarily modulated a coordinated and controlled immune response involving chemokines and inflammatory factors, while P. freudenreichii ITG P9 elicited a transcriptional response characterized by the modulation of genes associated with cell cycle control and stress. The pleiotropic effect of both probiotics on genes linked to metabolic, neurological, and autoimmune diseases was established, with many cases involving the regulation of genes with immunomodulatory, neuroprotective, or antitumor properties. Furthermore, key molecular mechanisms related to immunomodulation emerged from the results, including innate receptors such as TLR and NOD, and signaling pathways like NF-κB and MAPK, which, based on the transcriptomic data, support the relevance of the gut-brain axis connection as a framework for future investigation.
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