Dr. Liubov Shynkarenko Sichel is a leading Ukrainian microbiologist and co-founder, chief scientific officer (CSO), and chief executive officer (CEO) of Stellar Biotics LLC. She is responsible for the development of del-IMMUNE V®, a powerful nutritional supplement containing cell wall fragments from a unique strain of bacteria, Lactobacillus rhamnosus DV, one of the most effective microbial cell lysates used to treat a range of conditions in both humans and animals. Read more about her impressive career here.
Q: Do different strains within the genus Lactobacillus have different properties when used in probiotics/metabiotics?
A: Yes, the biological characteristics and health benefits of cultures from the same family are strain-specific.
Q: Why are bacteria from the genus Lactobacillus used in probiotics and metabiotics?
Lactobacillus is the safest and most effective option for probiotics and metabiotics. There are some other bacteria that are biologically effective with higher harvests, but they can have very strong toxicity. I believe that today’s scientists researching the microbiome will uncover more bacterial representatives that can be used to develop new effective biotherapeutics.
Q: Why was the species Lactobacillus rhamnosus selected to be used in del-IMMUNE V®? What makes it unique?
A: L. rhamnosus is the most stable species in industrial conditions, and we discovered that a particular strain, LB3, has strong immunological, antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties. L. delbrueckii (the species I mainly worked with before we isolated L. rhamnosus in 1999) is technologically more fragile, and the cell’s fermentation requires more technological effort.
Q: What can we expect from metabiotics in the future for oncological purposes?
A: Primarily, metabiotic substances can be used to protect against genetic damage during chemotherapy and radiation. They can also be used for the protection of the bone marrow and white blood cells, as well as stimulation of new blood cell growth. They can protect patients’ gut microbiota, supporting and protecting the digestive system. Viral, bacterial, and fungal infections are common reasons for complications for cancer patients, and metabiotics like del-IMMUNE V® can support and shield their vulnerable immune systems from these infections and other environmental threats.
For these patients who are already enduring so much, metabiotics could help normalize quality of life, increase the effects of cancer treatments, decrease the toxicity of chemotherapy or radiation, and support their immune systems during the post-surgical recovery period.
Q: Can del-IMMUNE V® replace vaccines or other conventional medical treatments? How should it be used in conjunction with other health practices?
A: As a preventative agent, del-IMMUNE V® could play the role of an enhancer for the natural protective immune response that happens when the body comes into contact with infectious agents. (See below for more details on this.)
Consumption of del-IMMUNE V® will also activate the immune system response during vaccination. It could potentially increase antibody production and make this process happen faster. In other words, del-IMMUNE V® acts as a potent adjuvant for vaccines.
Q: What advantages do metabiotics have over probiotics?
A: Since metabiotics like del-IMMUNE V® interact with our bodies in the same way as our native microbiota, they can be used as all-natural, targeted biotherapeutic agents to prevent and treat various pathologies. They can achieve this at the cellular level with gene regulation and primary metabolites involved in repairing disorders.
Furthermore, metabiotics are resistant to the harsh conditions of the gastrointestinal tract and compatible with different drugs. The potential side effects of probiotics (reduced survival of living cells once consumed, production of toxic amides, transfer of antibiotic-resistant genes, stimulation of excessive growth of some microorganisms) are entirely nonexistent in metabiotics, thanks to their structure and nature.
Probiotics also require significant time and specific conditions within the body to maintain survival, growth, and formation of active metabolites. Metabiotics, however, are ready to interact with active sites almost immediately upon entering the body.
Q: What are some common misconceptions about metabiotics?
A: In Western medicine, the understanding of the role of microbiota in disease formation and health management is still in its infancy. Probiotics have just begun to be widely accepted as an all-natural health-supporting tool. And Western medicine focuses not on the prevention of health issues but instead on treatment after the fact with pharmaceutical drugs.
A deep understanding of individual cells of the microbiome, as well as an understanding of probiotic cells’ life cycle inside the body and metabolic pathways during each stage of the life cycle, is needed to have a clearer understanding of how bacterial cell fragments, like the ones used in del-IMMUNE V®, can be involved in the balance of inner homeostasis.
So, though not a misconception, the main issue is poor knowledge about these processes, where each cell at each stage of its life does something useful for overall health. For example, after their death, bacterial cells in the body release active cell wall fragments that work as agonists (chemicals that bind to a receptor on or inside a cell and activate it) for special receptors on immune cells and other tissue cells that regulate inner homeostasis.
Once scientists and medical doctors widely acknowledge the biological ability of dead probiotic cells and their derivatives (cell wall fragments, DNA fragments), I believe ignorance about products like del-IMMUNE V® will dissipate.
Q: How can we educate scientists and doctors on the medical uses of metabiotics?
A: Metabiotics will become more accessible and widely used once we have further studied their efficacy and safety as complements to traditional treatments and have improved the technological processes needed to make these products.
In the last two decades, numerous educational programs have been created for probiotics, aimed at physicians of various specializations, to demonstrate their effectiveness in treating various disorders. Programs like this should also be made for metabiotics to demonstrate how they work on the molecular and genetic levels.
Q: What’s next for metabiotics?
A: Continuing to study individual microbial structures, like those used in metabiotics, will help us better understand the role of microorganisms, their communities, active metabolites, and microbial fragments in the disease and recovery processes.
One of the most relevant and doable future undertakings is finding ways to use metabiotics in adjuvants for various vaccines. These would increase the effectiveness of the vaccines by activating the mechanisms involved in forming the immune response, accelerating the formation of antibodies, enhancing their activity and quantity, prolonging their circulation in the body, and reducing side effects. This use would be especially applicable for children, elderly patients, and immunocompromised people, particularly during and after medical procedures (including surgeries) and consumption of pharmaceutical drugs with side effects.
Another use for metabiotics like del-IMMUNE V® is in the complex health management of cancer prevention. del-IMMUNE V® could be used as an adjuvant (a substance that enhances the immune response to cancer treatments) that plays a role as a biological protector for genetic and cell damage and that increases the efficacy of a specific chemotherapy drug while decreasing its toxic effects. It may make it possible to use lower doses of chemotherapy drugs with higher therapeutic effects. Currently, we are conducting a colon cancer trial in Cuba with the LE and DV strains.
