Pediococcus acidilactici CECT9879 (pA1c) Counteracts the Effect of a High-Glucose Exposure in C. elegans by Affecting the Insulin Signaling Pathway (IIS)

The increasing prevalence of metabolic syndrome-related diseases, including type-2 diabetes and obesity, makes it urgent to develop new alternative therapies, such as probiotics. In this study, we have used Caenorhabditis elegans under a high-glucose condition as a model to examine the potential probiotic activities of Pediococcus acidilactici CECT9879 (pA1c). The supplementation with pA1c reduced C. elegans fat accumulation in a nematode growth medium (NGM) and in a high-glucose (10 mM) NGM medium. Moreover, treatment with pA1c counteracted the effect of the high glucose by reducing reactive oxygen species by 20%, retarding the aging process and extending the nematode median survival (>2 days in comparison with untreated control worms). Gene expression analyses demonstrated that the probiotic metabolic syndrome-alleviating activities were mediated by modulation of the insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway (IIS) through the reversion of the glucose-nuclear-localization of daf-16 and the overexpression of ins-6 and daf-16 mediators, increased expression of fatty acid (FA) peroxisomal β-oxidation genes, and downregulation of FA biosynthesis key genes. Taken together, our data suggest that pA1c could be considered a potential probiotic strain for the prevention of the metabolic syndrome-related disturbances and highlight the use of C. elegans as an appropriate in vivo model for the study of the mechanisms underlying these diseases.