Malaysian Journal of Microbiology, Vol 16(6) 2020, pp. 446-453 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21161/mjm.190658 Malaysian Journal of Microbiology Published by Malaysian Society for Microbiology (In since 2011) 446 ISSN (print): 1823-8262, ISSN (online): 2231-7538 *Corresponding author Pediococcus pentosaceus as probiotic with cholesterol-lowering ability Dela Silvia 1 , Lilis Nuraida 2,3 and Anja Meryandini 4,5 * 1 Postgraduate of Microbiology Study Program, Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, IPB University, 16680, Dramaga, Bogor, Indonesia. 2 Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, IPB University, 16680, Dramaga, Bogor, Indonesia. 3 Southeast Asian Food and Agricultural Science and Technology (SEAFAST) Center, IPB University, 16680, Dramaga, Bogor, Indonesia 4 Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, IPB University, 16680, Dramaga, Bogor, Indonesia. 5 Research Center for Bioresources and Biotechnology (RCBIO), IPB University, 16680, Dramaga, Bogor, Indonesia. Email: ameryandini@apps.ipb.ac.id Received 2 December 2019; Received in revised form 27 February 2020; Accepted 24 June 2020 ABSTRACT Aims: Hypercholesterolemia which is an elevated blood cholesterol level that considered as a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death in many countries. Therefore, lowering the cholesterol level is important to prevent the disease. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) group are often used as probiotics for their health- promotion which include cholesterol-lowering effect. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potency of Pediococcus pentosaceus as probiotic that could reduce cholesterol. Methodology and results: All P. pentosaceus strains were able to survive in acid conditions and in the presence of 0.3% bile salts. These strains had antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, and Salmonella typhimurium ATCC 14028. The LAB were also sensitive to chloramphenicol and showed autoaggregation and coaggregation ability. Pediococcus pentosaceus E5, E7, and E8 were able to remove cholesterol with the highest activity showed by P. pentosaceus E7 (49.00 ± 2.83%). Dead cells and resting cells of P. pentosaceus E5, E7, and E8 (6-22%) also able to reduce the cholesterol but not as effectively as growing cells. Cholesterol lowering is often associated with bile salt hydrolase (BSH) enzyme activity, however none of the isolates were found BSH positive in this study. Conclusion, significance and impact of study: The present study suggests that P. pentosaceus E7 has beneficial probiotic properties which can be exploited for probiotic product with cholesterol-lowering effect. Keywords: Pediococcus pentosaceus, probiotics, cholesterol-lowering INTRODUCTION Cholesterol is an important structural component of animal cell membrane. However, elevated cholesterol levels is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease (Anila et al., 2016). Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for million people worldwide. The risk of developing cardiovascular disease is reduced by 2-3% when cholesterol level is reduced by 1% (Alba et al., 2018). Although drugs such as statins, effectively decrease cholesterol level but its side effects are commonly reported (Miremadi et al., 2014). Myalgia is the most common side effect from statin use with rates 1-10% of patients (Ramkumar et al., 2016). It has been proposed that consumption of probiotics products able to lower the serum cholesterol level. Probiotics are defined as viable microorganisms that exerts various beneficial effects to the host when ingested in an appropriate concentration. Therefore, the interest in using probiotics to reduce cholesterol level has increased from the last few decades (Anila et al., 2016). Probiotic bacteria mainly belonging to lactic acid bacteria (LAB) included Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. LAB are often used as probiotics for their health-promotion such as lowering-cholesterol, a series of in vitro tests must be applied as the selection criteria to identify potential probiotics. The results from previous studies showed Pediococcus pentosaceus VJ56 from Idly batter was able