Science

Pre-clinical study demonstrating that BeniCaros can modulate beneficial gut microbiota, improve gut barrier integrity, and decreased inflammatory markers.

Clinical study in healthy adults showing that prophylactic intake of BeniCaros, as a dietary supplement, modulated immune responses to rhinovirus infection and decreased duration and severity of symptoms without any side effects. Abstract presented and published at American Thoracic Society (ATS) , full manuscript is currently in preparation.

Clinical and pre-clinical studies demonstrating that dietary supplementation with BeniCaros is safe and effective, and has a dual mode of action: direct 1) immunomodulatory effect on phagocytosis and 2) gut microbiota modulation with enhanced production of beneficial microbial metabolites (short-chain fatty acids).

This study demonstrated that administration of cRG-I consistently modified the human microbiota despite the inherent interindividual variability between subjects. Levels of metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) that exert a beneficial effect on gut and immune health were increased as a result of the microbiota modulation. This study thus further confirms the dual mode of action of cRG-I on the host immune system and gut microbiota.

Pivotal clinical study showing that Nutrileads’ proprietary carrot-derived Rhamnogalacturonan-I (cRG-I) fiber, accelerates protective anti-viral immune responses and reduces symptoms after an experimental infection with common cold virus in humans.

The aim of this paper is to elaborate on our initial findings that dietary supplementation with carrot-derived rhamnogalacturonan-I (cRG-I) accelerates and augments local innate immune and anti-viral interferon response to a rhinovirus-16 (RV16) infection and reduces the severity and duration of symptoms in humans.

The aim of this review is to describe the effects of a range different dietary components on anti- infective innate as well as adaptive immune responses and to propose mechanisms by which they may interact with the immune system in the respiratory tract. Several dietary components are described including the unique findings with rhamnogalacturonan-I (cRG-I) (Govers et al. 2022)

Good nutrition is vital for maintaining health and supporting optimal immune function. Several essential micronutrients are known to contribute to normal functioning of the immune system and may carry health claims on products when they contain meaningful amounts. Certain dietary fibers, for example pectic polysaccharides from carrot that are rich in rhamnogalacturonan-I (cRG-I), have also been shown to play an important role as they can educate, regulate, and modulate immune cell responsiveness. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the scientific evidence supporting the immunomodulatory role of RG-I via nutrition.

Abstract published in Agro-Food Industry Hi-Tech, Vol. 33, 2022

The human gut microbiota is characterized by large interpersonal differences, which are not only linked to health and disease but also determine the outcome of nutritional interventions. In line with the growing interest for developing targeted gut microbiota modulators, the selectivity of a carrot-derived rhamnogalacturonan I (cRG-I) was compared to substrates with demonstrated low (inulin, IN) and high selectivity (xanthan, XA), at a human equivalent dose (HED) of 1.5 g/d. The high throughput of the ex vivo SIFR^® technology, validated to generate predictive insights for clinical findings, enabled the inclusion of 24 human adults. Such an unprecedented high number of samples in the context of in vitro gut microbiota modelling allowed a coverage of clinically relevant interpersonal differences in gut microbiota composition and function. A key finding was that cRG-I supplementation (already at an HED of 0.3 g/d) lowered interpersonal compositional differences due to the selective stimulation of taxa that were consistently present among human adults, including OTUs related to Bacteroides dorei/vulgatus and Bifidobacterium longum (suspected keystone species), Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, Bifidobacterium adolescentis and butyrate-producing taxa such as Blautia sp., Anaerobutyricum hallii, and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii. In contrast, both IN and XA treatments increased interpersonal compositional differences. For IN, this followed from its low specificity. For XA, it was rather the extremely high selectivity of XA fermentation that caused large differences between 15 responders and 9 nonresponders, caused by the presence/absence of highly specific XA-fermenting taxa. While all test compounds significantly enhanced acetate, propionate, butyrate, and gas production, cRG-I resulted in a significantly higher acetate (+40%), propionate (+22%), yet a lower gas production (–44%) compared to IN. cRG-I could thus result in overall more robust beneficial effects, while also being better tolerated. Moreover, owing to its remarkable homogenization effect on microbial composition and metabolite production, cRG-I could lead to more predictable outcomes compared to substrates that are less specific or overly specific.