The increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) globally necessitates alternative therapeutic strategies. Evidence suggests that intestinal microbiota significantly influences T2DM development, leading to the proposal of probiotics as potential treatments. However, challenges such as strain selectivity and low survival rates limit probiotics’ effectiveness. Combining probiotics with prebiotics, known as synbiotics, offers a promising approach for managing T2DM. The development of synbiotic-based functional foods also provides effective interventions for T2DM. This article synthesizes the recent advancements of synbiotics and synbiotic functional foods in managing T2DM, covering 40 studies, of which 29 studies employed synbiotics, and 11 studies employed synbiotic functional foods. In the 21 human studies, 17 focused on T2DM treatment and another 4 on the prevention of prediabetes from developing to T2DM. As for probiotics, 20 studies used single-strain probiotics, while others employed multiple strains, with 5 focusing on the synbiotics combined with hypoglycemic substances. Overall, synbiotics and synbiotic functional foods offer therapeutic benefits by reducing inflammation and oxidative stress, regulating gut microbiota, enhancing short-chain fatty acids, and improving intestinal barrier function. Further research is crucial to determine optimal formulations, dosages, and long-term safety, along with developing new synbiotic functional foods for effective diabetes interventions.
Zhu et al. (Sat,) studied this question.