Heat-killed Lactobacillus helveticus strain MCC1848 confers resilience to anxiety or depression-like symptoms caused by subchronic social defeat stress in mice

Abstract

The gut microbiota is involved in the pathogenesis of stress-related disorders. Probiotics can benefit the central nervous system via the microbiota–gut–brain axis, which raises the possibility that probiotics are effective in managing depression. In the present study, we examined the effects of heat-killed Lactobacillus helveticus strain MCC1848 in subchronic and mild social defeat stress (sCSDS) model mice (a widely used animal model of depression). MCC1848 supplementation significantly enhanced the interaction time in the social interaction test and sucrose preference ratio in the sucrose preference test, suggesting that MCC1848 improved anxiety- or depressive-like behaviors in sCSDS mice. The gene expression profile analysis of the nucleus accumbens, which plays an important role in stress resilience, indicated that MCC1848 ameliorated sCSDS-induced gene expression alterations in signal transduction or nervous system development. These findings suggest that MCC1848 supplementation is useful as a preventive strategy for chronic-stress-induced depression.

Antidepressive Mechanisms of Probiotics and Their Therapeutic Potential

“…Therefore, it can be speculated that L. helveticus influences the central 5-HT circuitry via the neural route. This is supported by a recent study showing that L. helveticus intake increased expression of 5-HT 1A receptors in the nucleus accumbens while restoring behaviors of depressed mice (Maehata et al, 2019).…”

“…Lactobacillus helveticus intake enabled the recovery of chronicand subchronic-stressed rodents from their state of depression (Liang et al, 2015;Maehata et al, 2019). Probiotic sticks containing L. helveticus, in addition to Bifidobacterium longum, reduced clinical depression and depressive-like symptoms in MDD patients (Kazemi et al, 2019) and healthy individuals (Messaoudi et al, 2011), respectively.…”

“…Chronic-stressed mice that ingested L. helveticus displayed an increase in hippocampal BDNF levels (Liang et al, 2015) and neurogenesis in the nucleus accumbens (Maehata et al, 2019). Nucleus accumbens is a brain region implicated in reward behavior.…”

Probiotic Properties and Neuroprotective Effects of Lactobacillus buchneri KU200793 Isolated from Korean Fermented Foods

“…Some probiotics, known as brain probiotics, produce gamma-aminobutyric acid and serotonin [3,4]. Some heat-killed lactobacilli alter microbiota composition [5] and affect the host's neurological and psychiatric functions [6,7].…”

Effects of dietary intake of heat-inactivated <i>Lactobacillus gasseri</i> CP2305 on stress-induced behavioral and molecular changes in a subchronic and mild social defeat stress mouse model

“…Studies employing experimental animals have shown that administering specific probiotics eases stress-induced glucocorticoid and inflammatory cytokine responses in conjunction with decrease in depression-and anxiety-related behaviors (4,7,15). Dietary supplements of Lactobacillus have been found to increase psychosocial stress resilience in sCSDS mice (23) and gene expression of neurotrophic factors such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus (38). Moreover, patients with major depression were found to have lower Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus counts in their gut than healthy controls did (1).…”