Abstract
Ischemic stroke is a debilitating neurological disease with few effective therapeutics. Previous work has shown that oral probiotic treatment prior to stroke can attenuate cerebral infarction and neuroinflammation, highlighting the gut–microbiota–brain axis as a novel therapeutic target. Whether a more clinically relevant, post-stroke, administration of probiotics can improve stroke outcomes is unknown. In this study, we examined the effect of post-stroke oral probiotic therapy on motor behavior in the pre-clinical mouse endothelin-1 (ET-1) model of sensorimotor stroke. We found that post-stroke oral probiotic therapy with Cerebiome® (Lallemand, Montreal, Canada), containing B. longum R0175 and L. helveticus R0052, improved functional recovery and changed the composition of the post-stroke gut microbiota. Interestingly, oral Cerebiome® administration did not result in alterations of lesion volume or the number of CD8+/Iba1+ cells in the injured tissue. Overall, these findings suggest that probiotic treatment following injury can improve sensorimotor function.
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Funding
This work was supported by the Mitacs Accelerate Program (Grant #: IT6930). The Cerebiome® probiotic formulation was provided in-kind by Lallemand Health Solutions (Montreal, Canada).
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The author, Tompkins TA, receives a salary from Lallemand (Montreal, Canada).
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Communicated by Bill J Yates.
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Daniele, E., Nazer, Y., Kortebi, I. et al. Oral probiotic therapy improves motor function in a rodent model of sensorimotor stroke. Exp Brain Res 241, 1931–1943 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-023-06651-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-023-06651-4