Steven Dubovsky, MD reviewing Burokas A et al. Biol Psychiatry 2017 Feb 24.

An animal study shows that prebiotics ameliorate maladaptive stress responses.

Probiotics, which may improve overall functioning, are live organisms that alter the intestinal microbiome. In contrast, prebiotics are soluble nonliving fibers that stimulate beneficial intestinal bacteria. Investigators in Ireland studied whether the prebiotics fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) might be effective in animal models of anxiety and depression.

Mice were given 3 weeks of supplementation with GOS, FOS, GOS plus FOS, or water and then were exposed to chronic social and other forms of stress. Compared with water, the prebiotics, especially their combination, altered the types and number of intestinal bacteria, with higher cecal concentrations of short-chain fatty acids. Paralleling these changes, the prebiotics induced hippocampal BDNF and GABAB receptor genes and attenuated stress-induced production of the cytokines interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha and of the primary stress hormone corticosterone. The prebiotics showed no effects on cognition, pain perception, and sociability, but GOS+FOS reduced anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in response to established stressful provocations of these behaviors.

CITATION(S):

Burokas A et al. Targeting the microbiota-gut-brain axis: Prebiotics have anxiolytic and antidepressant-like effects and reverse the impact of chronic stress in mice. Biol Psychiatry 2017 Feb 24; [e-pub]. 

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