Background: It is necessary to seek alternative therapies for depression, because side effects of medications lead to poor adherence and some patients do not achieve a clinical treatment effect. Recently the role of exercise as a low-cost and easy-to-use treatment for depression has gained attention with a number of studies showing that exercise is effective at reducing depressive symptoms and improving body functions such as cardiorespiratory system and cognitive function. Because of the heterogeneity of exercise therapy programs, there is no standardized and unified program. Few studies have summarized the specific properties of exercise programs (type, intensity, duration, and frequency) and clinical prescriptions for exercise are not mentioned in most articles.Aims: This study aimed to investigate the feasibility and efficacy of exercise therapy for patients with depression, in order to appraise the evidence and outline accepted guidelines to direct individualized treatment plans for patients with depression based on their individual situations.Methods: A systematic review of English language literature including papers published from 2010 to present in PubMed was performed. Given the feasibility of prescribing exercise therapy for patients with depression, nearly 3 years of clinical studies on the treatments of depressive symptoms with exercise were first reviewed, comparing the exercise programs utilized.Conclusions: Exercise has therapeutic effects on depression in all age groups (mostly 18–65 years old), as a single therapy, an adjuvant therapy, or a combination therapy, and the benefits of exercise therapy are comparable to traditional treatments for depression. Moderate intensity exercise is enough to reduce depressive symptoms, but higher-dose exercise is better for overall functioning. Exercise therapy has become more widely used because of its benefits to the cardiovascular system, emotional state, and systemic functions.Recommendations: Aerobic exercise/mind-body exercise (3–5 sessions per week with moderate intensity lasting for 4–16 weeks) is recommended. Individualized protocols in the form of group exercise with supervision are effective at increasing adherence to treatment.

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Background Gut microbiota is associated with anxiety and depression, while exercise has been proved to alleviate depressive symptoms. However, the interaction of exercise, depression, and gut microbiota remains unclear. Methods Male C57/BL6J mice were exposed to chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) for 6 weeks and then were subjected to a 5-week swimming program. Behavioral tests, including sucrose preference test (SPT), open field test (OFT), elevated plus-maze (EPM) test, and tail suspension test (TST), were conducted to assess the anxiety-like and depressive behaviors. Gut microbiota analysis was carried out after sample collection. Results This study showed that CUMS induced depressive behaviors, but swimming exercise increased sucrose preference rate in the SPT, increased time in the center and number of rearing in the OFT, decreased time in the closed arm and increased time in the open arm in EPM, and decreased immobility time in the TST. Firmicutes were the predominant phylum in the gut microbiome, followed by the phyla Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria. We further found that CUMS and swimming influenced the relative abundance of the genus Desulfovibrio, genus Streptococcus, genus p-75-a5. Among the metabolic pathways, aromatic biogenic amine degradation (PWY-7431), mono-trans and polycis decaprenyl phosphate biosynthesis (PWY-6383), chlorosalicylate degradation (PWY-6107), mycothiol biosynthesis (PWY1G-0), mycolyl-arabinogalactan-peptidoglycan complex biosynthesis (PWY-6397), toluene degradation I (aerobic) (via o-cresol) (PWY-5180), toluene degradation II (aerobic) (via 4-methylcatechol) (PWY-5182), and starch degradation III (PWY-6731) may be related to the mechanism of anti-depression effect. Conclusion Swimming exercise reverses CUMS-induced depressive behaviors, and the alteration of gut microbiota composition and regulation of microbiota metabolic pathways are involved.

In recent years the safety of probiotics has received increasing attention due to the possible transfer and spread of virulence factors (VFs) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) among microorganisms. The safety of a strain of Lactobacillus plantarum named W2 was evaluated in phenotype and genotype in the present study. Its probiotic properties were also evaluated both in vivo and in vitro, including adherence properties, antibacterial properties and beneficial effects on the growth and immunity of Pacific white shrimp, Penaeus vannamei. Hemolysis tests, antibiotic resistance tests and whole genome sequence analysis showed that W2 had no significant virulence effects and did not carry high virulence factors. W2 was found to be sensitive to chloramphenicol, clindamycin, gentamicin, kanamycin and tetracycline, and to be resistant to ampicillin and erythromycin. Most ARGs have no transfer risk and a few have transfer risk but no significant enrichment in human-associated environments. The autoaggregation of W2 was 82.6% and the hydrophobicity was 81.0%. Coaggregation rate with Vibrio parahaemolyticus (24.9%) was significantly higher than Vibrio’s autoaggregation rate (17.8%). This suggested that W2 had adhesion potential to mucosal/intestinal surfaces and was able to attenuate the adherence of V. parahaemolyticus. In addition, several adhesion-related protein genes, including 1 S-layer protein, 1 collagen-binding protein and 9 mucus-binding proteins were identified in the W2 genome. W2 had efficiently antagonistic activity against 7 aquatic pathogenic strains. Antagonistic components analysis indicated that active antibacterial substances might be organic acids. W2 can significantly promote the growth of shrimp when supplemented with 1 × 1010 cfu/kg live cells. Levels of 7 serological immune indicators and expression levels of 12 hepatopancreatic immune-related genes were up-regulated, and the mortality of shrimp exposed to V. parahaemolyticus was significantly reduced. Based on the above, L. plantarum W2 can be applied safely as a potential probiotic to enhance the growth performance, immunity capacity and disease resistance of P. vannamei.

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