Probiotic bacteria as modulators of cellular senescence: emerging concepts and opportunities

Abstract

Probiotic bacteria are increasingly gaining importance in human nutrition owing to their multifaceted health beneficial effects. Studies have also shown that probiotic supplementation is useful in mitigating age-associated oxi-inflammatory stress, immunosenescence, and gut dysbiosis thereby promoting health and longevity. However, our current understanding of the process of aging suggests a strong interrelationship between the accumulation of senescent cells and the development of aging phenotype, including the predisposition to age-related disorders. The present review studies the documented pro-longevity effects of probiotics and highlights how these beneficial attributes of probiotics could be related to the mitigation of cellular senescence. We present a perspective that to fully understand and comprehend the anti-aging characteristics of probiotic bacteria; it is imperative that probiotics or their synbiotic amalgamation with plant polyphenols, be studied under the purview of cellular senescence, that may ultimately help devise probiotic-based anti-senescence strategies.

Keywords: Probiotics; ROS; SASP; aging; inflammation; senescence.

Figure 1.

Schematic diagram depicting the role of senescent cells in driving the process of aging. Oxi-inflammatory stress contributes to the development of senescent cells which gradually accumulate and promote inflamm-aging, resulting in tissue and organ dysfunctions and pro-tumorigenic environment characteristic of aging-phenotype.

Figure 2.

Probiotics can influence the process of senescence. The secretory metabolites of probiotic bacteria such as polyamines, SCFAs or probiotic-fermented polyphenols could affect different aspects of cell senescence including cell cycle regulators, oxi-inflammatory stress, mTOR pathway and immune activation that may delay the initiation of senescence program leading to the augmentation of healthy aging.