A Pilot Study: Potential of the Probiotic Product LaBiNIC® to Inhibit Cancer Cells

Abstract

Background: Pediatric cancer is the prevailing cause of death among children over one year in the Western world. Studies show promising results with probiotic agents inhibiting cancer cells. Objectives: This project aimed to experimentally evaluate the anti-cancer activity of the probiotic product LaBiNIC® through two questions: 1) Would cell-free supernatant of LaBiNIC® bacterial culture decrease viability of neuroblastoma cells, a pediatric cancer cell line? 2) What potential bacterial metabolites could mediate anti-cancer effects? Methods: LaBiNIC® was incubated with neuroblastoma cell line Kelly, and viability measured by fluorescence The study included two experiments with incubation times of 24, 48, and 72 hours and different LaBiNIC®-dilutions. Untargeted metabolomic analysis was done on whole bacterial culture of LaBiNIC® using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Results: Dilutions of LaBiNIC® could significantly decrease the viability of Kelly at 48 and 72 hours, and the 25% at 72 hours. Lactic acid was the most abundant metabolite of LaBiNIC® after 24 hours incubation. Conclusion: This study identified that LaBiNIC® showed a inconsistent tendency to suppress viability of Kelly cells. Lactic acid was the most abundant metabolite produced by LaBiNIC®, but it was beyond the scope of this project to characterize whether it could mediate the anti-cancer effects. Further investigations into probiotics' inhibiting effects on neuroblastoma cells should be carried out