From: mha23x@gmail.com
ScienceDaily
Your source for the latest research news
Probiotics improve cognition in Alzheimer's patients
Date:
November 10, 2016
Source:
Frontiers
Summary:
For the first time, scientists have shown that probiotics -- beneficial live
bacteria and yeasts taken as dietary supplements -- can improve cognitive
function in humans. In a new clinical trial, scientists show that a daily dose
of probiotic
Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium bacteria taken over a period of just 12
weeks is enough to yield a moderate but significant improvement in the score
of elderly Alzheimer's patients on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE)
scale, a standard measure
of cognitive impairment.
Share:
FULL STORY
For the first time, scientists have shown that probiotics -- beneficial live
bacteria and yeasts taken as dietary supplements -- can improve cognitive
function in humans. In a new clinical trial, scientists show that a daily dose
of probiotic
Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium bacteria taken over a period of just 12
weeks is enough to yield a moderate but significant improvement in the score
of elderly Alzheimer's patients on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE)
scale, a standard measure
of cognitive impairment.
Probiotics are known to give partial protection against certain infectious
diarrheas, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, eczema,
allergies, colds, tooth decay, and periodontal disease. But scientists have
long hypothesized that
probiotics might also boost cognition, as there is continuous two-way
communication between the intestinal microflora, the gastrointestinal tract,
and the brain through the nervous system, the immune system, and hormones
(along the so-called "microbiota-
gut-brain axis"). In mice, probiotics have indeed been shown to improve
learning and memory, and reduce anxiety and depression- and OCD-like symptoms.
But prior to the present study there was very limited evidence of any
cognitive benefits in humans.
Here, the researchers, from Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, and
Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran, present results from a randomized,
double-blind, controlled clinical trial on a total of 52 women and men with
Alzheimer's between 60
and 95 years of age. Half of the patients daily received 200 ml milk enriched
with four probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. casei, L.
fermentum, and Bifidobacterium bifidum (approximately 400 billion bacteria per
species), while the other
half received untreated milk.
At the beginning and the end of the 12-week experimental period, the
scientists took blood samples for biochemical analyses and tested the
cognitive function of the subjects with the MMSE questionnaire, which includes
tasks like giving the current date,
counting backwards from 100 by sevens, naming objects, repeating a phrase, and
copying a picture.
Over the course of the study, the average score on the MMSE questionnaire
significantly increased (from 8.7 to 10.6, out of a maximum of 30) in the
group receiving probiotics, but not in the control group (from 8.5 to 8.0).
Even though this increase is
moderate, and all patients remained severely cognitively impaired, these
results are important because they are the first to show that probiotics can
improve human cognition. Future research, on more patients and over longer
time-scales, is necessary to
test if the beneficial effects of probiotics become stronger after longer
treatment.
"In a previous study, we showed that probiotic treatment improves the impaired
spatial learning and memory in diabetic rats, but this is the first time that
probiotic supplementation has been shown to benefit cognition in cognitively
impaired humans,"
says Professor Mahmoud Salami from Kashan University, the senior author of the
study.
Treatment with probiotics also resulted in lower levels of triglycerides, Very
Low Density Lipoprotein (VLDL), high-sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP)
in the blood of the Alzheimer patients, and likewise a reduction in two common
measures (called "
Homeostatic Model Assessment," HOMA-IR and HOMA-B) of insulin resistance and
the activity of the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
"These findings indicate that change in the metabolic adjustments might be a
mechanism by which probiotics affect Alzheimer's and possibly other
neurological disorders," says Salami. "We plan to look at these mechanisms in
greater detail in our next
study."
Walter Lukiw, Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience and Ophthalmology and
Bollinger Professor of Alzheimer's disease at Louisiana State University, who
reviewed the study but was not involved in the research, said: "This early
study is interesting and
important because it provides evidence for gastrointestinal (GI) tract
microbiome components playing a role in neurological function, and indicates
that probiotics can in principle improve human cognition. This is in line with
some of our recent studies
which indicate that the GI tract microbiome in Alzheimer's is significantly
altered in composition when compared to age-matched controls, and that both
the GI tract and blood-brain barriersbecome significantly more leaky with
aging, thus allowing GI
tract microbial exudates (e.g. amyloids, lipopolysaccharides, endotoxins and
small non-coding RNAs) to access Central Nervous System compartments."
Story Source:
Materials provided by Frontiers. Note: Content may be edited for style and
length.
Journal Reference:
Elmira Akbari, Zatollah Asemi, Reza Daneshvar Kakhaki, Fereshteh Bahmani,
Ebrahim Kouchaki, Omid Reza Tamtaji, Gholam Ali Hamidi, Mahmoud Salami. Effect
of Probiotic Supplementation on Cognitive Function and Metabolic Status in
Alzheimer's Disease: A
Randomized, Double-Blind and Controlled Trial. Frontiers in Aging
Neuroscience, 2016; 8 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2016.00256
Cite This Page:
MLA
APA
Chicago
Frontiers. "Probiotics improve cognition in Alzheimer's patients."
ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 November 2016. .
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
