| Description |
Depression is the most common mental disorder in the world. Recently, increasing studies have reported alcohol-related depression. However, there is no simple, efficient, and time-saving alcohol-related depression animal model yet. Based on the fact that people with alcohol addiction often have impaired gastrointestinal (GI) tract health like dysbiosis which serves as a primary factor to augment lipopolysaccharides (LPS), we first developed a murine alcohol-LPS model (mALPS), with oral gavage of LPS in acute alcohol treated mouse, and successfully observed depressive-like symptoms. We found that acute alcohol treatment damaged the intestinal barrier and caused dysbiosis. That further increased the translocation of LPS and neuroinflammation responses (TNF-α and IL-1β) which led to abnormal expression of the depression-related genes,i.e. BDND and IDO, and caused depressive behaviors of mice. Probiotics intervention could improve depressive symptoms without notable adverse effects. Akkermansia muciniphila (AKK), one of the next-generation of probiotics, has been widely used for the restoration of intestinal barrier and reduction of inflammation. Here, we found that AKK significantly ameliorated alcohol-related depressive behaviors in mALPS model, through enhancing the intestinal barrier and maintaining the homeostasis of gut microbiota. Further, AKK reduced the serum LPS, ameliorated neuroinflammation (TNF-α and IL-1β) and normalized the expression of depression-related genes in the hippocampus. Our study suggests that AKK supplement is a promising therapeutic regime for alcohol-associated depression in the future. |
