A probiotic supplement, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, and kefir separately can improve mood and exhibit potential anti-depressant-like activities in mice

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-403
Author(s):  
H. Soltanmoradi ◽  
M.S. Maniati ◽  
A. Davoodabadi ◽  
A. Mosapour ◽  
S. Samavarchi Tehrani ◽  
...  

AbstractDepression is a common psychiatric disorder that can be continuous or recurrent. It has been previously reported that intestine probiotics play an essential role in the bidirectional communication of the intestine and brain. This study aims to investigate the antidepressant effects of kefir, a probiotic supplement, and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and their potentials in depression-like behaviour treatment in two-week and four-week treatments. In the present study, BALB/c mice were used for this purpose. The saline- and fluoxetine-treated groups were designed as negative and positive control groups, respectively. The forced swimming and tail suspension tests have been performed to assess the level of depression-like activity. We have observed that two-week treatment reduces the duration of depression-like activities, and four-week treatment enhances the antidepressant properties. Overall, our results suggest that kefir, L. rhamnosus GG, and the investigated probiotic supplement have antidepressant-like properties.

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 205873922110476
Author(s):  
Bin She ◽  
Huajin Wu ◽  
Qin Xie ◽  
Mingjuan Zhang ◽  
Nan Zhou ◽  
...  

The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of naringenin (NGN) and its methylated derivatives (50 or 100 mg kg−1) on finasteride-caused depression-like performance in mice to identify the effects on behavior and biomarkers of inflammation in the management of depression. Depression-like behavior was induced by repeated dose of finasteride (100 mg kg−1, subcutaneously) in mice. The effects of the naringenin (50 or 100 mg kg−1) or its methylated derivatives (Ngn-M; 50 or 100 mg kg−1 or Ngn-DM; 50 or 100 mg kg−1) and duloxetine (DXT, 10 mg kg−1) were evaluated for the immobility time in tail suspension and forced swimming tests following finasteride pre-treatment. The levels of brain pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β and TNF-α were also measured by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay to further evaluate the impact of naringenin and its methylated derivatives on inflammation. Pre-treatment with finasteride substantially increased both the immobility time spent in tail suspension and forced swimming tests and brain levels of IL-1β and TNF–α in mice. Doluxetine (DLX) was given at a dose of 10 mg kg−1, and Naringenin or its methylated derivatives were given at doses of 50 and 100 mg kg−1 orally. It reduced immobility time in both tests, restored the preference to sucrose solution, and normalized cytokine levels (p < 0.01) in mice. Similar effects were observed with DTX (10 mg kg−1) as positive control. The increased brain levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) or nitrite were considerably (p < 0.05) decreased while substantially (p < 0.05) increased glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) levels after finasteride pre-treatment relative to vehicle-control by naringenin or its methylated derivatives (50 or 100 mg kg−1). These findings demonstrated the potential for methylated flavonoids as safe and effective anti-depressive agents.


Author(s):  
Joshua A. Owens ◽  
Bejan J. Saeedi ◽  
Crystal R. Naudin ◽  
Sarah Hunter-Chang ◽  
Maria E. Barbian ◽  
...  

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Wannapha Mookhploy ◽  
Sasiprapa Krongdang ◽  
Panuwan Chantawannakul

Honeybees are globally threatened by several pathogens, especially deformed wing virus (DWV), as the presence of DWV in western honeybees is indicative of colony loss. The high mortality rate is further exacerbated by the lack of effective treatment, and therefore understanding the immune and apoptosis responses could pave an avenue for the treatment method. In this study, DWV was directly injected into the white-eyed pupae stage of western honeybees (Apis mellifera). The DWV loads and selected gene responses were monitored using the real-time PCR technique. The results showed that honeybee pupae that were injected with the highest concentration of viral loads showed a significantly higher mortality rate than the control groups. Deformed wings could be observed in newly emerged adult bees when the infected bees harbored high levels of viral loads. However, the numbers of viral loads in both normal and crippled wing groups were not significantly different. DWV-injected honeybee pupae with 104 and 107 copy numbers per bee groups showed similar viral loads after 48 h until newly emerged adult bees. Levels of gene expression including immune genes (defensin, abaecin, and hymenoptaecin) and apoptosis genes (buffy, p53, Apaf1, caspase3-like, caspase8-like, and caspase9-like) were analyzed after DWV infection. The expressions of immune and apoptosis genes were significantly different in infected bees compared to those of the control groups. In the pupae stage, the immune genes were activated by injecting DWV (defensin and hymenoptaecin) or Escherichia coli (defensin, abaecin, and hymenoptaecin), a positive control. On the contrary, the expression of apoptosis-related genes (buffy, caspase3-like, caspase8-like, and caspase9-like genes) was suppressed at 96 h post-infection. In DWV-infected newly emerged adult bees, abaecin, hymenoptaecin, Apaf1, and caspase8-like genes were upregulated. However, these genes were not significantly different between the normal and crippled wing bees. Our results suggested that DWV could activate the humoral immunity in honeybees and that honeybee hosts may be able to protect themselves from the virus infection through immune responses. Apoptosis gene expressions were upregulated in newly emerged adult bees by the virus, however, they were downregulated during the initial phase of viral infection.


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