Life sciences firm OptiBiotix Health plc (LON:OPTI) has had an abstract accepted for presentation at next month's International Scientific Conference on Probiotics and Prebiotics.
Taking place in Budapest, Hungary, from 20 June to 22 June, the conference is the world's largest scientific gathering of the movers and shakers in the field of probiotics (micro-organisms that are believed to provide health benefits when consumed) and prebiotics (substances that induce the growth or activity of micro-organisms) .
The conference attracts up to 500 leading scientists, opinion leaders, investors, and clinicians from more than 80 countries.
The abstract, titled “The Development of a Targeted Synergistic Synbiotic for Lactobacillus plantarum LPLDL”, describes how by combining its OptiScreen and OptiBiotic technology platforms, OptiBiotix was able to synthesise a dietary fibre that substantially enhances the cholesterol reducing activity of LPLDL in gut models. This creates the potential for next generation LPLDL products with cholesterol reduction levels potentially approaching those of statins.
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LPLDL is a naturally-occurring strain of the bacterial species Lactobacillus plantarum. Lactobacilli are common components of the human intestine and are used by the food industry as probiotics for general health benefits.
"This abstract demonstrates the ability of OptiBiotix to create targeted prebiotics which when combined with a probiotic greatly enhances the probiotics growth and biological effect, in this case cholesterol reduction,” said Stephen O'Hara, chief executive officer of OptiBiotix.
“This new research highlights the potential for the development of species or genera-specific probiotics to selectively enhance the growth and health benefits of existing probiotics. This has the potential to provide improved next generation products with enhanced performance and product differentiation in the probiotics functional food market, a market that is expected to be worth in excess of US$46.5bn by 2020,” he added.