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Figure 1. Steps required for the development of a probiotic.
(Figure omitted. See article PDF.)
Figure 2. Streptococcus salivarius : the probiotic for all ages. Diseases that may be alleviated by Streptococcus salivarius probiotics and the ages at which they generally tend to manifest. Reproduced with permission from [77].
(Figure omitted. See article PDF.)
Figure 3. Electron microscope image demonstrating the attachment of Streptococcus salivarius K12 to HEp-2 cells. Image courtesy of M Rohde.
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Figure 4. Influence of Streptococcus salivarius probiotics in the oral cavity. Health benefits can occur through the direct inhibition and exclusion of pathogens, modulation of the human immune system to reduce pathogen-induced inflammation or by 'priming'the immune system to respond rapidly to viral or bacterial infection.
(Figure omitted. See article PDF.)
Consumers seeking health-promoting dietary supplements have long been conditioned to the ingestion of yoghurt as a convenient source of living beneficial microbes (i.e., probiotics). The definition of the term probiotic has undergone a series of evolutionary changes [1] and is now generally accepted to be "live organisms, which when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host"[2]. Conventional probiotics have typically comprised bacteria of intestinal origin (especially lactobacilli and bifidobacteria) and their application has principally been to provide relief for maladies of the GI tract. However, the realization that much human illness can be linked either directly (e.g., dental caries, periodontal disease and candidosis) or indirectly (e.g., cardiovascular disease and perhaps even obesity) to the development of oral microbiota disequilibria has diverted much contemporary probiotic research to the development of products that are capable of fostering a healthy oral microbiota [3]. While researchers initially tried to establish whether conventional approved intestinal probiotics could also influence the oral microbiota, these bacteria (perhaps unsurprisingly) have no oral persistence, and any oral cavity health benefits seem transitory and largely attributable to immune stimulation [4]. A more logical strategy is to utilize microbes isolated from their natural oral habitat in healthy humans as oral probiotics. The term 'oral probiotics'is used here to refer to beneficial microbes given to the (usually human) host to help maintain or effect improvements in their oral health -not intestinally derived probiotics that are delivered orally!
The scientific origins of oral...