Synbiotic-Derived Metabolites Alleviate Stress-Induced Depression by Regulating Lymphocyte Activation through the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor

Synbiotics are a combination of probiotics and prebiotics which can alter the composition of the gastrointestinal tract evoking beneficial effects throughout the body through the production of a battery of bioactive metabolites. In this study, a synbiotic was used to reduce the behavioral and biochemical symptoms of depression and this nanostring panel was used to decipher where along the gut-brain-axis the synbiotic-derived metabolites were invoking their beneficial effects on the immune system. The synbitoic was composed of two probiotic bacteria (Lactobacillus fermentum ATCC 793 and Bifidobacteria longum ATCC 15707 and a grape -derived prebiotic composed of grape seed polyphenol extract, resveratrol and a concord grape extract. Male mice (C57BL/6) were pretreatment with either nothing (control), BDPP, probiotic or synbiotic and underwent 28 days of chronic unpredicitable stress. After 28 days, animals' behavior reflected an increase in depressive- and anxiety-like behavior, rescued specifically by the synbiotic. This nanostring multiplex analysis reveals both tissue- and treatment-specific effects on immune modulators. 4 Tissues are included in this dataset: frontal cortex, hippocampus, ileum and liver. For each tissue, there are 5 treatment groups: (i) unstressed control, (ii) stressed control, (iii) stressed BDPP-treated, (iv) stressed-probiotic treated and (v) stressed-synbiotic treated. Each group has n = 3 replicates.