Displacement of Enterococcus faecalis from hydrophobic and hydrophilic substrata by Lactobacillus and Streptococcus spp. as studied in a parallel plate flow chamber

Authors

Gregor Reid, The University of Western Ontario

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2-1-2008

Journal

Clinical Infectious Diseases

Volume

46

Issue

SUPPL. 2

URL with Digital Object Identifier

10.1086/523340

Abstract

The recent increased interest in probiotics among clinicians has many causes, primarily the concern about the limitations of the current armamentarium of pharmaceutical agents. Although probiotics have been used mostly in dietary supplements and foods to maintain health, scientific and clinical studies are recognizing the potential of some probiotics to be therapeutic in function. Scientific breakthroughs in understanding the source and composition of the human microbiota, the key nutritional factors that influence these microbes, and their immunomodulatory effects; the creation of disease-targeted recombinant strains; the isolation and characterization of signaling molecules that can modulate microbial biofilms and infectious processes; and advances in biomedical engineering that will provide new delivery systems for probiotics will shape the future of clinical applications of probiotics. In time and with rigorous documentation, some probiotics will likely find an important place in medical practice. © 2008 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved.