Recent advances in stimuli-responsive oral delivery systems for controlled release of probiotics: A review

Oral probiotics are recognized as a safe and convenient therapy that offers both preventive and therapeutic effects for various diseases, including diarrhea, colon cancer, obesity, diabetes, and inflammation. However, protecting probiotics during their delivery and ensuring their successful arrival at the target site is crucial. Currently, probiotic encapsulation technology is widely used to protect probiotics from the harsh conditions of the gastrointestinal tract, enhance their intestinal adhesion, and improve their functionality. Based on this, various probiotic delivery systems with distinct triggering mechanisms (such as pH, mucosal adhesion, time, redox, and enzymes) have been successfully developed. These systems effectively deliver a substantial quantity of highly active probiotics to the intestine, increasing their oral bioavailability. This review comprehensively summarizes the relevant literature on probiotic stimulus-responsive release and discusses how various stimuli can trigger the release of probiotics from carriers at specific locations. Additionally, we explore the characteristics of probiotic release, including controlled release, sustained release, and targeted release, while discussing their potential applications in treating various diseases. Moreover, this review discusses various strategies and methods for constructing stimulus-responsive delivery systems based on probiotic carrier structures. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future prospects of probiotic stimulus-responsive delivery. Collectively, probiotic stimulus-responsive delivery systems demonstrate significant potential for enhancing the delivery and efficacy of probiotics in treating various diseases. Ongoing research and development in this field could lead to innovative and targeted therapies for specific diseases.