Psycho(bio)logical effects of a probiotic mixture - an fMRI study

Probiotics have been reported to show mental health benefits. A preclinical study suggests mental health benefits of a probiotic mixtures containing Bifidobacterium longum R0175, Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum R1012. We conduct a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blinded, crossover proof-of-concept study which for the first time investigates this combination of probiotic strains regarding its benefit for mental health in humans. The available evidence suggests promising effects on precisely targeted health outcomes of various patient groups, contributing to the arising field of personalised medicine.

We aim to examine the effect of the probiotic intervention in healthy subjects on:

• Brain response patterns to an emotional task
• Brain response patterns and autonomic nervous system function during acute psychological stress challenges
• Resting state brain function
• Psychological symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, stress perception and sleep quality
• Biomarkers of gut-brain interactions
• Composition of the gut microbiota

Publications

Rode J* & Edebol Carlman HMT*, König J, Repsilber D, Hutchinson AN, Thunberg P, Andersson P, Persson J, Kiselev A, Lathrop Stern L, Salomon B, Mohammed AA, Labus JS, Brummer RJ. Probiotic mixture containing Lactobacillus helveticus, Bifidobacterium longum, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum affects brain responses toward an emotional task in healthy subjects: A randomized clinical trial. Front Nutr 2022,9:827182. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.827182. *equal contribution

Edebol Carlman HMT* & Rode J*, König J, Repsilber D, Hutchinson AN, Thunberg P, Persson J, Kiselev A, Pruessner JC, Brummer RJ. Probiotic mixture containing Lactobacillus helveticus, Bifidobacterium longum, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum affects brain responses to an arithmetic stress task in healthy subjects: A randomised clinical trial and proof-of-concept study. Nutrients 2022,14:1329. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/nu14071329. *equal contribution

Rode J, Edebol Carlman HMT, König J, Hutchinson AN, Thunberg P, Persson J, Brummer RJ. Multi-Strain Probiotic Mixture Affects Brain Morphology and Resting State Brain Function in Healthy Subjects: An RCT. Cells 2022. Cells, E-ISSN 2073-4409, Vol. 11, nr 18, artikel-id 2922. DOI: 10.3390/cells11182922