The Feasibility of Integrating Spray-Dried and Freeze-Dried Oat β-Glucans into a Synbiotic Formulation with Akkermansia muciniphila
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This research was to examine how drying techniques (freeze drying and spray drying) applied to oat β-glucans influence the growth and fermentability of Akkermansia mucini-phila (A. muciniphila), as well as the potential to integrate them into a synbiotic formulation. Extracted oat β-glucans underwent freeze drying (FD) and spray drying (SD) processes before being introduced as supplementary carbon sources (1%) to the Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) medi-um contained A.muciniphila MSCL 1582. The BHI medium contained inulin (IN), D-glucose (GLU), and BHI without added substrates, served as the control. Bacterial growth and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production were measured before and after 72-hour fermentation. A light microscope and KOVA slides were used for A. muciniphila count, and SCFA levels were measured via gas chromatography. In conclusion, the study found that both FD and SD oat β-glucan do not exert an antagonistic impact on the growth of A. muciniphila or the production of propionic and acetic acids. Our study’s results suggests that FD and SD can potentially serve as protective agent for A.muciniphila growth and as additional substrate in a complementary synbiotic formulation.
The manuscript is interesting. It is well design and the result is interesting. However, there still have issues need to check.
1. Line 38. “In 2011, synbiotics were classified as either complementary or synergistic formulations” The reference is out of date. Please refer this reference (Food & Function, 2022, 13(24), 12686-12696.).
2. The impact of structural differences in oat β-glucan on activity and gut microbiota regulation needs to be indicated (Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 63(19): 3895-3911).
3. “2.2. Microorganism’s growth and fermentation medium” The correlation about glucan with fermentation characteristic should be analyzed. Please refer this reference (Food Chemistry, 402(2023): 134231).
4. The discussion part can be compressed.
5. In fact, beta glucan is a good delivery system for prebiotics and gut microbiota(Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 70(21):6300-6316).
6. The expression should be double checked.
7. Please complete reference page numbers.
8. The reference should be update in recently years.
This research was to examine how drying techniques (freeze drying and spray drying) applied to oat β-glucans influence the growth and fermentability of Akkermansia mucini-phila (A. muciniphila), as well as the potential to integrate them into a synbiotic formulation. Extracted oat β-glucans underwent freeze drying (FD) and spray drying (SD) processes before being introduced as supplementary carbon sources (1%) to the Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) medi-um contained A.muciniphila MSCL 1582. The BHI medium contained inulin (IN), D-glucose (GLU), and BHI without added substrates, served as the control. Bacterial growth and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production were measured before and after 72-hour fermentation. A light microscope and KOVA slides were used for A. muciniphila count, and SCFA levels were measured via gas chromatography. In conclusion, the study found that both FD and SD oat β-glucan do not exert an antagonistic impact on the growth of A. muciniphila or the production of propionic and acetic acids. Our study’s results suggests that FD and SD can potentially serve as protective agent for A.muciniphila growth and as additional substrate in a complementary synbiotic formulation.
The manuscript is interesting. It is well design and the result is interesting. However, there still have issues need to check.
1. Line 38. “In 2011, synbiotics were classified as either complementary or synergistic formulations” The reference is out of date. Please refer this reference (Food & Function, 2022, 13(24), 12686-12696.).
2. The impact of structural differences in oat β-glucan on activity and gut microbiota regulation needs to be indicated (Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 63(19): 3895-3911).
3. “2.2. Microorganism’s growth and fermentation medium” The correlation about glucan with fermentation characteristic should be analyzed. Please refer this reference (Food Chemistry, 402(2023): 134231).
4. The discussion part can be compressed.
5. In fact, beta glucan is a good delivery system for prebiotics and gut microbiota(Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 70(21):6300-6316).
6. The expression should be double checked.
7. Please complete reference page numbers.
8. The reference should be update in recently years.
Author Response
Dear Editor,
thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted in track changes in the re-submited file.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The document has much mistakes, and not relevance and justification are present.
In the introduction the ideas are not clear, the importance of the microorganism, Spray Dried and Freeze Dried is not presented.
Scientific names and the international systems of units are not used.
Some methodologies are very extensive 2.1.3 Oat β-glucans isolation, and others as 2.1.2 Chemical characterization, are very brief. Morever, the composition of BHI both is not important.
The results are not presented adequately, they should not contain the applied statistical analysis.
The English language is important to review.
The English language is important to review.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
thank you very much for taking tame to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding corrections/revisions highligted in track changes in the re-submited file.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
In this work, the authors examined how drying techniques (freeze drying and spray drying) applied to oat β-glucans influenced the growth and fermentability of Akkermansia muciniphila. To this end bacterial growth and short chain fatty acid (SCFA), i.e. acetate, propionate and buterate, production were measured before and after 72-hour fermentation. The results confirmed that both freeze-dried and spray-dried oat β-glucan do not exert an antagonistic impact on the growth of A. muciniphila or the production of propionic and acetic acids. The authors suggested that oat β-glucans regardless of the method used for drying may serve as a protective agent for the growth of A. muciniphila growth and that they can be used as additional substrates in a complementary synbiotic formulations,
General concept comments:
The manuscript is generally well written and presents an interesting topic from both a scientific and application point of view.
The main problem is too short description of the conditions for cultivating the strain, in particular the method of inoculating the culture. Perhaps the use of a dextrose-free basic microbial medium instead of a glucose-containing BHI would lead to even more pronounced differences in bacterial growth.
Authors should provide correct taxonomic names or at least include information on the current taxonomic name as in the case of the phylum Firmicutes.
Specific comments:
Detailed comments have been marked in the form of tracking changes and comments in the attached file.
The general comment is to pay special attention to the correct formatting of the Latin names of bacterial species - in italics, and to standardize the style of references.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Minor issues detected have been corrected in the attached file in the form of corrected text or comments.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
thank you very much for review this article. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted in track changes in the re-submitted file.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The author has responded to the reviewer's comment point by point. It can be accepted in the current revision.
The author has responded to the reviewer's comment point by point. It can be accepted in the current revision.
Reviewer 2 Report
None
None
