Ingestion of specific probiotics, namely "psychobiotics", produces psychotropic effects on behavior and affects the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and neurochemicals in the brain. We examined the psychotropic effects of a potential psychobiotic bacterium, Lactobacillus plantarum strain PS128 (PS128), on mice subjected to early life stress (ELS) and on naïve adult mice. Behavioral tests revealed that chronic ingestion of PS128 increased the locomotor activities in both ELS and naïve adult mice in the open field test. In the elevated plus maze, PS128 significantly reduced the anxiety-like behaviors in naïve adult mice but not in the ELS mice; whereas the depression-like behaviors were reduced in ELS mice but not in naïve mice in forced swimming test and sucrose preference test. PS128 administration also reduced ELS-induced elevation of serum corticosterone under both basal and stressed states but had no effect on naïve mice. In addition, PS128 reduced inflammatory cytokine levels and increased anti-inflammatory cytokine level in the serum of ELS mice. Furthermore, the dopamine level in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) was significantly increased in PS128 treated ELS and naïve adult mice whereas serotonin (5-HT) level was increased only in the naïve adult mice. These results suggest that chronic ingestion of PS128 could ameliorate anxiety- and depression-like behaviors and modulate neurochemicals related to affective disorders. Thus PS128 shows psychotropic properties and has great potential for improving stress-related symptoms.

Probiotics, defined as live bacteria or bacterial products, confer a significant health benefit to the host, including amelioration of anxiety-like behavior and psychiatric illnesses. Here we administered Lactobacillus plantarum PS128 (PS128) to a germ-free (GF) mouse model to investigate the impact of the gut-brain axis on emotional behaviors. First, we demonstrated that chronic administration of live PS128 showed no adverse effects on physical health. Then, we found that administration of live PS128 significantly increased the total distance traveled in the open field test and decreased the time spent in the closed arm in the elevated plus maze test, whereas the administration of PS128 had no significant effects in the depression-like behaviors of GF mice. Also, chronic live PS128 ingestion significantly increased the levels of both serotonin and dopamine in the striatum, but not in the prefrontal cortex or hippocampus. These results suggest that the chronic administration of PS128 is safe and could induce changes in emotional behaviors. The behavioral changes are correlated with the increase in the monoamine neurotransmitters in the striatum. These findings suggest that daily intake of the L. plantarum strain PS128 could improve anxiety-like behaviors and may be helpful in ameliorating neuropsychiatric disorders.

BackgroundClinical and preclinical observations indicate that Lactobacillus plantarum has anti-inflammatory activity and may regulate the immune responses of its hosts when ingested. Recently, modification of teichoic acids (TAs) produced by L. plantarum was reported as a key to regulating the systemic immune response in mice. However, data linking TA-related genetic determinants and the immunomodulatory effect are limited. To provide genomic information for elucidating the underlying mechanism of immunomodulation by L. plantarum, we sequenced the genome of L. plantarum strain PS128.ResultsThe PS128 genome contains 11 contigs (3,325,806 bp; 44.42% GC content) after hybrid assembly of sequences derived with Illumina MiSeq and PacBio RSII systems. The most abundant functions of the protein-coding genes are carbohydrate, amino acid, and protein metabolism. The 16S rDNA sequences of PS128 are closest to the sequences of L. plantarum WCFS1 and B21; these three strains form a distinct clade based on 16S rDNA sequences. PS128 shares core genes encoding the metabolism, transport, and modification of TAs with other sequenced L. plantarum strains. Compared with the TA-related genes of other completely sequenced L. plantarum strains, the PS128 contains more lipoteichoic acid exporter genes.ConclusionsWe determined the draft genome sequence of PS128 and compared its TA-related genes with those of other L. plantarum strains. Shared genomic features with respect to TA-related subsystems may be important clues to the mechanism by which L. plantarum regulates its host immune responses, but unique TA-related genetic determinants should be further investigated to elucidate strain-specific immunomodulatory effects.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13099-015-0068-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.