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This study evaluated whether <jats:italic>B. circulans<\/jats:italic> can ferment glucose to generate electricity and mitigate the effects of human skin pathogens. The electricity production of <jats:italic>B. circulans<\/jats:italic> was examined by measuring the voltage difference and verified using a ferrozine assay in vitro. To investigate the fermentation effects of <jats:italic>B. circulans<\/jats:italic> on inhibition of human skin pathogens, <jats:italic>Cutibacterium acnes<\/jats:italic> (<jats:italic>C. acnes<\/jats:italic>) was injected intradermally into mice ears to induce an inflammatory response. The results revealed that the glucose\u2013<jats:italic>B. circulans<\/jats:italic> co-culture enhanced electricity production and significantly supressed <jats:italic>C. acnes<\/jats:italic> growth. The addition of roseoflavin to inhibit flavin production considerably reduced the electrical energy generated by <jats:italic>B. circulans<\/jats:italic> through metabolism and, in vivo test, recovered <jats:italic>C. acnes<\/jats:italic> count and macrophage inflammatory protein 2 (MIP-2) levels. This suggests that <jats:italic>B. circulans<\/jats:italic> can generate electrons that affect the growth of <jats:italic>C. acnes<\/jats:italic> through flavin-mediated electron transfer and alleviate the resultant inflammatory response. Our findings demonstrate that probiotics separated from natural substances and antimicrobial methods of generating electrical energy through carbon source fermentation can help in the treatment of bacterial infections.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-022-23848-9","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,10]],"date-time":"2022-11-10T15:04:44Z","timestamp":1668092684000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Extracellular electrons transferred from honey probiotic Bacillus circulans inhibits inflammatory acne vulgaris"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Hsin-Jou","family":"Kao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Arun","family":"Balasubramaniam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chun-Chuan","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chun-Ming","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"23848_CR1","first-page":"159","volume":"7","author":"PB Olaitan","year":"2007","unstructured":"Olaitan, P. 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