Probiotics are living microorganisms that provide health benefits to the host when consumed in certain amounts. Autoimmune diseases including systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis are immune diseases that cause tissue and organ damage due to immune dysfunction in the body. Patients with autoimmune diseases often suffer from intestinal flora disorders. Probiotic intervention can restore intestinal microecological balance, avoiding the toxic side effects of medications, so it provides a new strategy for the prevention and treatment of autoimmune diseases. This article reviews the recent progress in research on autoimmune diseases and presents the current status and future prospects of the application of probiotic intervention strategies in autoimmune diseases.

Fungal polysaccharides are a group of high polymers extracted from the fruiting body, mycelium or fermentation broth of fungi, and are one of the main bioactive substances in edible fungi. They are composed of a variety of monosaccharides and form a complex structure through the connection of chemical bonds, which makes them have a variety of biological activities such as anti-tumor, antioxidant, hypoglycemic, and hypolipidemic effects. They are often added to foods as prebiotics. In recent years, with the continuous exploration of fungal polysaccharides, rapid progress has been made in the extraction, purification, structure analysis, biological activities and product development of fungal polysaccharides. In this paper, the chemical composition, structure analysis and biological activities of fungal polysaccharides are summarized, and the development status and future prospects of lactic acid bacteria fermented foods incorporated with fungal polysaccharides are discussed, so as to provide reference for functional exploration of fungal polysaccharides and for future research to enrich the variety of lactic acid bacteria fermented products.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that threatens human health all over the world. Rheumatoid arthritis is closely related to intestinal microbial balance. Probiotics have been demonstrated to have the potential for treating rheumatoid arthritis as they can play an important role?in?improving gut microbiota disorder and restoring normal gut microbiota.?This?paper reviews the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis and the changes in the gut microbiota of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and summarizes research studies on the application of probiotics in alleviating rheumatoid arthritis, in order to provide a basis for further clinical trials and application of probiotics.

Postbiotics are a new means of intervention in the intestinal ecosystem that has emerged in recent years. Postbiotics refer to soluble factors (products or metabolic by-products) secreted by living bacteria or released after bacterial lysis, namely small molecules that regulate the health of the host, such as enzymes, peptides, teichoic acid, peptides derived from peptidoglycan, polysaccharides, cell surface proteins, and organic acids. Although the International Symposium of the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics has not yet published a consensus on postbiotics, this concept closely related to probiotics still attracts people’s attention. This paper briefly clarifies the classification and preparation methods of postbiotics, and discusses the advantages and potential application of postbiotics as functional ingredients in dairy products.

Phellinus baumii is a highly-valued medicinal mushroom. In the current study, inhibitory effects of different concentrations of the 95% ethanol extract from Phellinus baumii were examined on Gram-positive, Gram-negative, molds and yeasts. The results showed that the Phellinus baumii ethanol extract at concentrations in the range of 0.1 to 5 mg/mL was effective against the growth of harmful bacteria and fungi and could obviously control the total number of bacteria in milk without having any significant adverse impact on beneficial bacteria. Meanwhile, the extract had a broader antimicrobial spectrum than antimicrobials such as nisin, suggesting its potential application for inhibiting harmful microorganisms in milk and dairy products.

In the present study, 5 strains of Streptococcus thermophilus which were isolated from traditional fermented dairy products were selected to perform fermentation experiments. During the fermentation process and 504 h of storage at 4 ℃, some indexes such as fermentation time, titratable acidity (TA), pH value and viable cell counts were determined, and the composition of organic acids was tested by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography(RP-HPLC). Fermentation and acid-producing properties of Streptococcus thermophilus were evaluated; meanwhile changes in organic acid composition and post-acidification characteristics during storage were determined. After 2 h of fermentation at 42 ℃, the pH of fermented milk by each of the five strains declined rapidly. The fermentation reached its end-point at 5–9 h, and the shortest fermentation time was required for strains IMAU10632 and IMAU20772. Over the 504 h storage period, the pH of milks fermented by Streptococcus thermophilus was reduced by about 0.5 and finally reached a stable level of about 4.2, and acids were produced at lower rates in all fermented milks until the acidity values reached levels below 90 oT , suggesting the weak post-acidification ability of the 5 strains. Furthermore, IMAU10632 was selected from these strains, which could shorten milk coagulation time, increase acid-producing rate, enhance post-acidification ability and reach a viable cell count exceeding 108 CFU/mL which remained unchanged over the entire storage period.

A method for the simultaneous determination of twelve elements (K, Ca, Na, Mg, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, Al, Pb, Cr and Cd) in milk powder for infants and young children by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICPAES) was established. Instrumental parameters were optimized. Standard curves for these twelve elements were obtained with correlation coefficients greater than 0.9995. The detection limits of the ICP-AES method for these elements were in the range of 0.02 to 5 mg/kg, and the spiked recoveries were 87.5%–106.3% with RSD lower than 5% (n = 6). This method was rapid and accurate and could be used for quality control and safety evaluation of milk powder.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that threatens human health all over the world. Rheumatoid arthritis is closely related to intestinal microbial balance. Probiotics have been demonstrated to have the potential for treating rheumatoid arthritis as they can play an important role in improving gut microbiota disorder and restoring normal gut microbiota. This paper reviews the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis and the changes in the gut microbiota of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and summarizes research studies on the application of probiotics in alleviating rheumatoid arthritis, in order to provide a basis for further clinical trials and application of probiotics.