Objective: To explore the effects of probiotics strains on the neuroinflammation and degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in chronic Parkinson’s disease (PD) mice model.

Background: Microglia-mediated neuroinflammation has been implicated in the pathogenesis of PD. A growing body of evidences from both the clinical and animals’ experiments suggested that gut microbiota dysbiosis play a key role in influencing the progress of PD. However, the potential role of the therapeutic options probiotics, which pointed at modification the gut microbiota composition in the progress of PD is unknown.

Methods: Four-week-old C57BL/6N male mice were oral-administered the probiotics strains Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM and Bifidobacterium lactis HN019 (109 CFU/day) or saline for 4 weeks prior to testing. 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) (25 mg/kg) or saline were injected twice a week for 5 weeks. Mice were also oral-administered the probiotics or saline each day during the 5 weeks of MPTP injection. At the end of MPTP injection, gastrointestinal (fecal pellet output) and motor symptoms (open-field and pole tests) was assessed. Pathology of α-synuclein, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) neuron loss, inflammation and hallmarks of microglial phenotype from the middle brain were also analyzed. Fecal samples were collected and the DNA were extracted and performed 16S rRNA sequencing targeting V3-V4 region.

Results: The supplementary of probiotics could adjusted the changed-community of gut microbiota induced by MPTP, especially with decrease of genus prevotella, which was linked with chronic inflammatory conditions. Probiotics also significantly attenuated gastrointestinal and motor symptoms, along with the decrease of pro-inflammatory cytokines mRNA expression, TH-positive neuronal loss, TLR-2 expression and typical hallmarks of the pro-inflammatory (M1) activation of microglia. Additionally, probiotics upregulated the anti-inflammatory cytokines mRNA expression as well as increasing the expression of typical hallmarks of anti-inflammatory (M2) phenotype.

Conclusions: Overall, the supplementary of probiotics strains was essential for M2 microglia polarization by modifying gut microbiota, and therefore it has a potential role in the switch of microglia phenotypes to show neuroprotective effects in the pathogenesis of PD.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/neuroprotection-effects-of-probiotics-strains-on-a-chronic-mptp-induced-mouse-model-of-parkinsons-disease/