Probiotic, antimicrobial and anticancer properties of Lysinibacillus macroides, Kurthia huakuii, and Enterococcus faecium isolated from freshwater snail gut microbiota

Theodor Bilharz Research Institute

Bibliographic Information

Authors: Shaker R.A.E.; Hashem R.A.; Hassan M.; Ibrahim A.M.; Ragab Y.M.; Khattab R.A.

Journal: BMC Biotechnology

Publisher: BioMed Central Ltd

Publication Date: 3 September 2025

Volume / Issue: Volume 25 / Issue 1

Article No.: 98

ISSN: 14726750

DOI: 10.1186/s12896-025-01038-5

Scopus: View on Scopus

PubMed: 40903738

Document Type: Article

Access: All Open Access; Gold Open Access; Green Open Access

Authors and Affiliations

Shaker R.A.E., Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Kasr Al-Aini, Cairo, 11562, Egypt; Hashem R.A., Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Kasr Al-Aini, Cairo, 11562, Egypt; Hassan M., Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Kasr Al-Aini, Cairo, 11562, Egypt, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Galala University, Suez, New Galala City, 43511, Egypt; Ibrahim A.M., Department of Medical Malacology, Theodor Bilharz Research Institute, Corniche El-Nile St., Imbaba, Giza, 12411, Egypt; Ragab Y.M., Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Kasr Al-Aini, Cairo, 11562, Egypt, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Sinai University (EL-Arish Branch), Sinai, 16020, Egypt; Khattab R.A., Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Kasr Al-Aini, Cairo, 11562, Egypt

Abstract

Background: The composition and roles of intestinal microbial populations have been clarified including mammals and humans however, less is understood concerning the gut microbiota of mollusks. For the first time, we investigated non-parasite transmitting freshwater snails Lanistes carinatus (L. carinatus), Cleopatra bulimoides (C. bulimoides) and Helisoma duryi (H. duryi) gut microbiota as a source of probiotic strains with anticancer potential and explore their microbial population structure. Results: Our investigation demonstrated significant variation in microbial richness, identifying 32 bacterial phyla across the three snail species. Pseudomonadota (44–60%) and Bacteroidota (17–20%) were identified as the predominant phyla in all snails, with p value = 0.28 and 0.39, respectively in relative abundance. Distinct compositional changes were observed as L. carinatus had a greater abundance of Bacillota. H. duryi exhibited higher microbial diversity with Verrucomicrobiota and Cyanobacteria comprising 5–20% of its gut microbiota. Lysinibacillus macroides (L. macroides), Kurthia huakuii (K. huakuii) and Enterococcus faecium (E. faecium) were isolated from L. carinatus, C. bulimoides and H. duryi, respectively. L. macroides, K. huakuii and E. faecium demonstrated antimicrobial efficacy towards selected pathogenic strains. The bacterial isolates displayed significant tolerance to acidic pH and bile salts concentrations (0.3% and 0.7% w/v). The cytotoxicity of the microbial isolates secreted metabolites was examined using the MTT assay. Cytopathological changes and caspase-3 / TNF α immunohistochemistry were examined on Caco-2 cells. Results demonstrated the anticancer activity of the metabolites of the three microbial isolates on Caco2 cells where K. huakuii exhibited the highest enhancement in apoptosis and necrosis. Conclusions: Our study identified diverse bacterial populations in freshwater snail gut microbiota with compositional differences. The isolated bacterial strains showed promising antimicrobial properties and anticancer potential, particularly K. huakuii. These results suggest that snails could be used as niche sources for beneficial bacteria with biotechnological and therapeutic applications. © The Author(s) 2025.

Keywords

Anticancer activity; Enterococcus faecium; Freshwater snails; Immunohistochemistry; Microbiota; Probiotics; Animals; Anti-Infective Agents; Antineoplastic Agents; Bacillaceae; Caco-2 Cells; Fresh Water; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Humans; Snails; Cytotoxicity; Ecology; Mammals; Metabolites; Yeast; antiinfective agent; antineoplastic agent; bile salt; caspase 3; probiotic agent; tumor necrosis factor; Anti-microbial properties; Anticancer activities; Anticancer potentials; Gut microbiota; Microbial populations; Microbiotas; acid tolerance; antibiotic sensitivity; antimicrobial activity; antineoplastic activity; antiproliferative activity; Article; Bacillota; bacterial strain; bacterium; bacterium identification; bacterium isolate; Bacteroidota; beneficial organism; Caco-2 cell line; Cleopatra bulimoides; cyanobacterium; cytopathology; drug screening; freshwater snail; H. duryi; Helisoma duryi; hydrophobicity; intestine flora; Kurthia huakuii; L. carinatus; Lanistes carinatus; Lysinibacillus macroides; metabolite; molecular genetics; MTT assay; necrosis; nonhuman; phylum; population abundance; proapoptotic activity; Pseudomonadota; salt tolerance; snail; species composition; species diversity; species richness; Verrucomicrobiota; animal; human; isolation and purification; microbiology; physiology; Molluscs; Water

Citation Information

Scopus Citations: 1

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