News Archive2015

'Gut thinking' Professor Cryan's team feature in New Scientist Article

25 Nov 2015
Dr Andrew Allen, APC Microbiome , Prof Ted Dinan, APC Microbiome Institute & Dept. Psychiatry, Dr Gerard Clarke APC Microbiome Institute & Dept. Psychiatry, & Prof John Cryan, APC Microbiome Institute & Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience. photo: Dr Catherine Buckley

The New Scientist article describes how John Cryan and his team found that rodents fed a broth containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus showed reduced signs of stress and anxiety.

This particular bacterium is known to release the anti-anxiety neurotransmitter GABA, and last month, Cryan’s team presented work at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago that replicated this study in 22 men with another bacteria Bifidobacterium longum 1714. They took the probiotic for four weeks and found similar results with regard to stress and anxiety.

At the start of the study and after each of the four-week conditions, researchers measured the participants’ acute stress, memory, and brain activity. The participants also rated their daily stress on a questionnaire throughout the study. The researchers found that both perceived daily stress and physiological reaction to an acute stressor were reduced in the probiotic condition. Participants also performed better on a visual memory task after receiving the probiotic. These findings suggest this Bifidobacterium longum 1714 strain may prove to be a useful probiotic for alleviating stress-related conditions.

 

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