Table 2.

Studies on the effect of probiotics/prebiotics/synbiotics on bodyweight and gut microbiota in pre-clinical and clinical models of cachexia.

Cachexia	Treatment	Dose	Model	Treatment length	Changes in the gut microbiota	Bodyweight	Other physiological and metabolic changes	References
Probiotics
Preclinical studies	Lactobacillus reuteri 100-23 + Lactobacillus gasseri 311476	2 × 108 CFU/ml of each strain	Leukemic BALB/c mice with cachexia	13 days	↑ L. reuteri, ↑ L. gasseri/L. johnsonii	=	↓ pro-inflammatory markers,↓ muscle atrophy markers	[292]
	Lactobacillus reuteri ATCC-PTA-6475	3.5 × 105 CFU daily	C57BL/6 ApcMIN mice	∼ 3 months	Not measured	Not reported	↓ muscle atrophy, ↑ muscle weight, ↓ inflammation	[293]
Prebiotics
Preclinical studies	POS	5% (w/w)	Leukemic BALB/c mice with cachexia	15 days	↑ Bacteroides dorei, ↑ Bifidobacterium, ↑ Roseburia	=	↓ body fat loss and β-oxidation, ↑ SCFAs acetate and propionate, ↓ isovalerate and branched SCFAs	[294]
	POS	200 mg/day	BALB/c mice with neuroblastoma	Not reported	↑ Clostridial Family XIII, ↓Muribaculum	=	No changes	[295]
Clinical studies	inulin + FOS		Elderly people with frailty syndrome	13 weeks	Not measured	Not reported	↓exhaustion, ↑ handgrip strength	[296]
Synbiotics
Preclinical studies	Lactobacillus reuteri 100-23 + oligofructose Orafti	6.34 × 108 CFU + 0.2 g daily	Leukemic BALB/c mice with cachexia	13 days	↑ Lactobacillus spp (reuteri), ↓ Enterobacteriaceae, ↑ Clostridium cluster XVIII	Not reported	↓ muscle waste, ↑ survival, improved gut function and immunity	[245]
	Kimchi enriched with Leuconostoc mesenteroides + L. plantarum	5.1 g/kg/day	Cachectic BALB/c mice with adenocarcinoma	3 weeks	Not reported	↑ (∼ 11%)	↑ survival, ↑ muscle preservation, ↓ inflammation, ↓ lipolysis	[297]

Abbreviation; CFU; colony-forming unit, POS; pectic oligosaccharides. FOS; fructo-oligosaccharides.