Probiotics May Help Reduce Autism Symptoms, New Study Suggests
A groundbreaking study suggests that allowing a beneficial type of bacteria to thrive in the gut could help improve autism symptoms. These new findings support the growing idea that gut microbes do have an impact to brain function. It is also the first research to show that probiotics may be capable of reversing autism-like behaviours.
A growing body of research suggests that the trillions of microbes living in the gut affect human health in significant ways. For instance, the imbalance of beneficial and harmful bacteria could increase the risk of obesity, diabetes and colon cancer. Even neuroscientists are starting to recognise the impact of gut flora in the brain, particularly in the cognition process.
Now, a team of scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder in the US have discovered that a beneficial type of bacteria may actually help reduce autism-like behaviours in lab mice. For their study, the researchers used a technique called maternal immune activation in pregnant mice to induce autism-like behaviour and neurology in their offspring.
They found that the gut microbial community of the offspring differed markedly compared with a control group of mice. And when the mice with autism-like symptoms were fed with Bacteriodes – a microbe known to bolster the immune system, the aberrant behaviours were reduced.
Groundbreaking findings
Their study opens the door to a possible new approach to treating autism, which is one of the most common mental disorders worldwide. The National Autistic Society estimates that around 700,000 people (or one in 100) in the UK have this condition. This mental disorder usually begins in childhood and may last until adulthood. Symptoms may include problems and difficulties with social interaction, impaired language and communication skills, and unusual patterns of thought and physical behaviour, according to the NHS.
"The broader potential of this research is obviously an analogous probiotic that could treat subsets of individuals with autism spectrum disorder," the authors wrote. They hope to broaden this understanding by further studying the microbial community of autistic people, who tend to suffer from more gastrointestinal problems than the general public.
The study was published in the journal Cell.
Source of this article:
Toward Effective Probiotics for Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders
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