1. The Effect of Lactobacillus casei Consumption in Improvement of Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder: an Animal Study
- Author
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Nafiseh Sadat Sanikhani, Reza Heidari, Paria Sadat Lavasani, Shilan Shafei, Elahe Motevaseli, Parvaneh Jafari, Soudeh Ghafouri-Fard, Mostafa Akbariqomi, Mohammad Hossein Modarressi, Nasim Vousooghi, Fatemeh Yazarlou, Department of Medical Genetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences
- Subjects
Male ,0301 basic medicine ,Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder ,Lactobacillus casei ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Quinpirole ,[SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio] ,medicine.medical_treatment ,030106 microbiology ,Prefrontal Cortex ,Serotonergic ,Microbiology ,Dopamine agonist ,law.invention ,03 medical and health sciences ,Probiotic ,Neurotrophic factors ,law ,Fluoxetine ,Internal medicine ,medicine ,Animals ,Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2A ,Rats, Wistar ,Molecular Biology ,Saline ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins ,Behavior, Animal ,biology ,business.industry ,Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor ,Probiotics ,biology.organism_classification ,Rats ,3. Good health ,Disease Models, Animal ,Lacticaseibacillus casei ,030104 developmental biology ,Endocrinology ,Gene Expression Regulation ,Dopamine Agonists ,Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation ,Molecular Medicine ,business ,medicine.drug - Abstract
Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is an important neuropsychiatric disorder worldwide. Common treatments of OCD include serotonergic antidepressants, which can cause potentially serious side effects. We assessed the effects of Lactobacillus casei (L. casei) Shirota consumption in an animal model of OCD. OCD-like symptoms were induced in rats by the chronic injection of the D2/D3 dopamine agonist quinpirole hydrochloride. Rats were classified into five groups of 6 rats. Four groups were injected chronically with quinpirole (0.5 mg/kg, twice weekly for 5 weeks). They were fed with L. casei Shirota (109 CF/g, daily for 4 weeks) (group 1), fluoxetine (10 mg/kg, daily for 4 weeks) (group 2), combination of L. casei Shirota and fluoxetine (group 3), and normal saline (positive control group). The last group did not receive dopamine agonist and was only injected with saline (negative control group). Expression levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf), solute carrier family 6 member 4 (Slc6a4), and 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor type 2A (Htr2a) were assessed in orbitofrontal cortex tissues of all rats. Behavioral tests showed improvement of OCD signs in rats treated with L. casei Shirota, fluoxetine, and a combination of drugs. Quantitative PCR analysis showed a remarkable decrease in the expression of Bdnf and an increase in the expression of Htr2a in quinpirole-treated rats. After treatment with L. casei Shirota and fluoxetine, the expression level of Bdnf was increased remarkably, whereas Htr2a expression was decreased. The current study showed the effectiveness of L. casei Shirota in the treatment of OCD in a rat model. The beneficial effects of this probiotic are possibly exerted through the modulation of serotonin-related genes expression.
- Published
- 2020
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