Epidemiology of fungal infections: What, where, and when
Mahmoud A. Ghannoum, John R. Perfect in Antifungal Therapy, 2019
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a yeast used in the food industry for beers, wines and bakery products, and it is also part of the normal flora of the gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tract, and vaginal mucosa. Saccharomyces boulardii, which is now considered as a variety of S. cerevisiae, is used in probiotics for the prevention or treatment of antibiotic-related diarrhea. Saccharomyces fungemia has been increasingly reported during the last decade and has been associated with the use of probiotics [496]. In addition to translocation from the gastrointestinal tract, intravenous cather infection can also be a port of entry. Fungemia may occur in immunocompromised as well as immunocompetent patients. In a review of 60 cases of S. cerevisiae fungemia, 60% of patients were in the ICU, 71% were receiving enteral or parenteral nutrition, 93% had a central venous catheter and 88% were receiving broad-spectrum antibacterial therapy and the use of probiotics was reported for 46% [496]. In addition to fungemia, other clinical presentations of S. cerevisiae infections include: endocarditis, liver abscess, esophagitis, peritonitis, pneumonia or empyema, urinary tract infection and vaginitis [496,497]. The presence of antibodies to S. cerevisiae has also been associated with Crohn disease [498].
Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Crohn’s Disease
Richard K. Burt, Alberto M. Marmont in Stem Cell Therapy for Autoimmune Disease, 2019
Further support for intestinal flora as a cause of disease is the presence of anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibody (ASCA) in patients with Crohn’s disease. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is Baker’s yeast. Yeast exert a strong adjuvant effect upon dendritic cells resulting in IL-12 production and priming of T cell responses, and are a commonly used assay for demonstrating intact Th1 delayed type hypersensitivity. ASCA may be used as a diagnostic marker to help differentiate Crohn’s disease from ulcerative colitis.28,29 Proliferation assays of peripheral blood lymphocytes incubated with Saccharomyces cerevisiae and pulsed with tritiated thymidine demonstrate a three fold increase in proliferative response from Crohn’s patients compared to normal controls, including healthy normal bakers.30 Pre and post transplant peripheral blood ASCA antibody, T cell proliferative responses, and T cell lines to intact Saccharomyces cerevisiae and/or extracts from Saccharomyces cerevisiae may be generated and analyzed to determine the role of gut flora in causing Crohn’s disease.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Dongyou Liu in Handbook of Foodborne Diseases, 2018
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an ubiquitous, ascomycete yeast that has been used in the production of food and beverage since ancient times; therefore, it is frequently referred to as “baker's yeast” or “brewer's yeast.” Although S. cerevisiae has long been considered as a safe microorganism, its role as human pathogen particularly in critically ill and immunocompromised patients only became apparent about two decades ago.1–3 Since the 1990s, there have been a growing number of reports about its implication as an etiologic agent of invasive infections4,5 (see also references cited in this chapter). Due to its use in both the traditional and industrial fermentative production of beer, wine, and baked foods, S. cerevisiae has also been promoted by health food enthusiasts as a nutritional supplement in the form of brewer's yeast tablets or powder containing viable organisms. As a consequence, people ingest S. cerevisiae and, therefore, are potentially exposed to the risk of infections due to rarely pathogenic, but problematic, strains from this species.6,7 In this regard, it is noteworthy that S. cerevisiae is a very heterogeneous species, encompassing clinical isolates and strains used in food production and in the laboratory that tend to have mosaic recombinant genomes.8
Cancer Chemopreventive, Antiproliferative, and Superoxide Anion Scavenging Properties of Kluyveromyces marxianus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. boulardii Cell Wall Components
Published in Nutrition and Cancer, 2018
Olivier Fortin, Blanca Aguilar-Uscanga, Khanh Dang Vu, Stephane Salmieri, Monique Lacroix
Yeasts are largely used in industrial domains especially in food industry. However, cell wall of spent yeasts is often discarded after fermented broth collected or used in many applications such as yeast extract or nutraceutical food supplements (8, 9). Yeast cell walls are organized with approximately the same polysaccharides which mainly consist of mannoprotein, chitin, and (1→3)-β-D-glucan with (1→6)-β-D-glucan ramifications (10). Many studies have investigated the natural properties of yeast cell wall and suggested that their sugar composition, notably the β-glucan component, is mostly responsible for their strong anticancer, antineoplastic, and chemical properties in in vitro and in vivo models (11–13). Those properties depend on physicochemical nature of polysaccharides, such as molecular weight and sugars ratios, along with integrity of the polysaccharides network (e.g., triple-helix structure of glucan) which vary according to growth conditions, extraction methods, and yeast species (4, 14–16).
Baker’s yeast induces apoptotic effects and histopathological changes on skin tumors in mice
Published in Cogent Medicine, 2018
Amany Elwakkad, Mamdooh Ghoneum, Mamdouh El-sawi, Saadia Ibrahim Mohamed, Amina A. Gamal el Din, Deyu Pan, Ghada Mahmoud Elqattan
Baker’s yeast is an essential component for the production of fermented foods like bread and beer. Our earlier studies showed that heat-killed baker’s yeast exerts anticancer activity against different types of cancer. This is based on the observation that cancer cells can engulf yeast, which ultimately shuts down and kills the cancer cell from within. This study aims to assess baker’s yeast as a novel natural product that can cause the death of skin cancer cells in animals. Several parameters were examined and show skin tumors stopped growing and regressed in mice treated with yeast compared to those untreated. Though several treatments for skin cancer exist, these are known to have severe side effects. We show the anticancer effects of yeast as a safe, non-toxic agent, which may suggest its possible use as treatment against skin cancer in humans.
Biological detoxification of ochratoxin A in plants and plant products
Published in Toxin Reviews, 2019
Mahmoud Sheikh-Zeinoddin, Mohammadreza Khalesi
Demands for bioproducts obtaining from the biochemical process are increasing. As an ancient green process, fermentation is an easy, fast and cost-effective process used to preserve the nutritional value, flavor, aroma, and texture of the food products, and to control several environmental pollutions (Bourdichon et al. 2012, Ghimire et al. 2015, Lee et al. 2015, Sen et al. 2016). Yeasts, particularly Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and LAB are the main groups of the microbial population involved in food and beverage fermentation (Jespersen 2003). The raw materials involved in the fermentation process are suspicious to be contaminated by the fungal mycotoxins like OTA (Riba et al. 2008). Nevertheless, following an ideal fermentation process usually results in the OTA-free products (Halász et al. 2009, Hathout and Aly 2014). This attributes to the OTA decontamination by the starters. It is a challenging issue to correlate this OTA detoxification whether to LAB, to yeasts, or probably both (Halász et al. 2009).