Intake of probiotics may be effective for the prevention and treatment of depression

Japan's National Medical Center compared intestinal bacteria of 43 severe depressed patients and 57 healthy people and found that the number of beneficial bacteria bifidobacteria and lactobacilli of patients with depression was significantly less than that of healthy people. The study results show that people who have less beneficial bacteria are at a higher risk of depression.

The current number of patients receiving treatment for depression is about 700,000 in Japan, and it is supposed that patients who do not receive the treatment presumably exceed the number of 3-4 times, and it is one of the main diseases which threat much to the health state of Japanese. It is generally believed that depression is caused by biological reasons such as neurotransmitter abnormalities, endocrine abnormalities and chronic inflammation, but depression is still not more understood. There are 1,000 kinds of human gut bacteria and the number is more than 100 trillion; the total weight is about 1 to 1.5 kg. These bacteria absorb nutrients, vitamins and protein synthesis from food to prevent outside pathogenic bacteria invade the body, bearing a very important task. Scientists can use the technology of recombinant protein to realize it.

The team took 43 patients with severe depression and 57 healthy people as the object of study. They gathered bifidobacteria and lactobacilli from the stool test personnel and used 16 s rRNA genes quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to analyze and found that the number of bifidobacteria in patients with severe depression was significantly lower than that of healthy subjects; the total number of bacteria of lactobacillus was also low. In related analysis, the percentage of patients with severe depression who were below critical value of bifidobacterium (109.53 in per gram of feces) was 49% (21/43 people), and that of healthy groups was 23% (13/57 people). The team also found that in tested subjects, the ratio of concurrent irritable bowel syndrome in patients with severe depression was significantly higher.

The research results which were published in the online edition of the journal Affective Disorder first report that a small number of bacteria may easily lead to an increased risk of depression. And the study also finds that stress-induced mental illness such as irritable bowel syndrome is also related with beneficial bacteria. Intake of probiotics such as yogurt and lactic acid drinks may be effective for the prevention and treatment of depression. Then whether some recombinant proteins such as recombinant Lrfn1 also can do some help?