Recent Trends in Probiotics and Gut Microbiome for Human Health

Dear Colleagues,

Since 1908, when Metchnikoff first introduced beneficial microbes for prolonging life, scientific evidence of probiotics as functional supplementary foods has been abundant. Recent published articles have indicated that probiotics, exerting beneficial effects, might be perhaps recognized as a “panacea”, covering areas from gut health to an improvement in neurocognitive disorders. For example, beyond in vitro and in vivo experiments, over 1,000 clinical studies related to probiotics have been registered in the International Trial Registry Platform (ICTRP) of the World Health Organization (WHO), and have addressed over 700 different diseases and conditions (Theresia et al., 2020). However, the mechanism underlying the beneficial effects of probiotics is still questionable, and the effective substances that are metabolically produced by probiotic bacteria have not yet been identified to solve these unanswered questions. In addition, studies on fermentative food, including potential probiotics or live biotherapeutics and the fermentation techniques of unculturable bacteria, called “culturomics”, are attractive themes.

The goal of this Special Issue is to publish recent innovative research results, as well as review papers with pioneering opinions on the fermentation techniques and beneficial effects of probiotics and unculturable microbes; the combination of these concepts is highly recommended. High-quality reviews and original research articles on the three prerequisites for the commercialization of probiotics, namely safety assessment, unique functionalities, and manufacturing, are also of interest. If you would like to contribute a review paper, please contact one of the editors before submitting the manuscript to discuss the topic’s relevance.

Dr. Jungwoo Yang
Dr. Young Hoon Jung
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fermentation is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.