Advancements in the pharmaceutical applications of probiotics: Dosage forms and formulation technology

Probiotics have demonstrated their high potential to treat and/or prevent various diseases including neurodegenerative disorders, cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and inflammatory diseases. Probiotics are also effective against multidrug-resistant pathogens and help maintain a balanced gut microbiota ecosystem. Accordingly, the global market of probiotics is growing rapidly, and research efforts to develop probiotics into therapeutic adjuvants are gaining momentum. However, because probiotics are living microorganisms, many biological and biopharmaceutical barriers limit their clinical application. Probiotics may lose their activity in the harsh gastric conditions of the stomach or in the presence of bile salts. Moreover, they easily lose their viability under thermal or oxidative stress during their preparation and storage. Therefore, stable formulations of probiotics are required to over-come the various physicochemical, biopharmaceutical, and biological barriers and to max-imize their therapeutic effectiveness and clinical applicability. This review provides an overview of the pharmaceutical applications of probiotics and covers recent formulation approaches to optimize the delivery of probiotics with particular emphasis on various dosage forms and formulation technologies.