INPAROL tested probiotic production from 2 types of probiotics, Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus retueri as well as their mixes. Viability after treatment was tested and all probiotic groups tested lost viability after 15 minutes of treatment confirming parabiotic formation to the bacterial cells after treatment. Imaging through the use of scanning electron microscopy was carried out to assess structural changes to the probiotic cells. Imaging showed progressive collapse of the bacterial membrane with increased treatment times. Lactobacillus rhamnosus products tested resulted in the greatest inhibition towards oral microorganisms, although inhibition decreased as treatment time increased. This led to investigations of liquid portion, known as the supernatant, as opposed to the cell portion post-treatment. The supernatant was then analysed and this investigation highlighted that the supernatant contained portions of the bacterial cells and therefore a parabiotic in itself. Modelling techniques were then adapted to test the supernatant-derived parabiotic effects on oral microorganisms growth.
Dissemination of the project was carried at different levels.
Disseminating the information to the public was carried out through:
-Facebook (
https://www.facebook.com/INPAROL(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie) ) and Linkedin (
https://www.linkedin.com/company/80963509/admin/(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) INPAROL project pages aiming to share any videos or articles generated from dissemination activities as well as general information on probiotics.
-INPAROL participated in a video highlighting research carried out at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Malta. This video was screened during Science in the City 2021, a local European researchers night which was held as a hybrid event.
-INPAROL was invited to a radio interview (
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=627429381630433(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) on Radju Malta , Malta's Public Service Broadcaster to talk about the project and the role of probiotics and their derivates as part of RadioMocha Malta, a weekly science program.
-An article on the Sunday Times of Malta was written on the role of the oral microbiome. This was printed, as well as published online (
https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/the-human-microbiome-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly.933538?fbclid=IwAR2RDT-_o1l4kcuOahh0fGjWsznTmr2vVuyBIvRGr99L1rqDAwXavA4wESA(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)).
INPAROL’s researcher participated in online workshops held by another European consortium, Combating and Evaluation of Mixed Biofilms (CEMBO; cembo.eu) to raise awareness on MSCA Individual fellowships and the project itself through an invited presentation, while also updating the project and researcher’s current knowledge on current techniques that are being developed to test mixed biofilms. Dissemination to the scientific community was also carried out through participation at the Continental European Division of the International Association of Dental Research (IADR) meeting in Brussels (
https://ced-iadr2021.com/(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) which had a session dedicated to probiotics; participation in the British Society of Periodontology meeting held in London (
https://www.bsperio.org.uk/events/bsp-event-calendar/bsp-conference-2020(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) and submission of an abstract for the upcoming Pan European Region IADR Meeting in Marseille in September 2022 (
https://per-iadr2020.com/(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)). INPAROL also hosted a trainee from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece) through an ERASMUS undergraduate internship scheme to further train other scientists in probiotic testing and parabiotic generation.
INPAROL also reached out to industry leaders in the field of probiotics to assess their current views and potential collaboration for development of innovative probiotics.
