Abstract
The bidirectional communication between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system appears to be functionally linked to the intestinal microbiome, namely the microbiome–gut–brain axis (MGBA). Probiotics with health benefits on psychiatric or neurological illnesses are generally called psychobiotics, and some of them may also be able to improve sleep by targeting the MGBA. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a psychobiotic strain, Lactobacillus fermentum PS150TM (PS150TM), on sleep improvement by using a pentobarbital-induced sleep mouse model. Compared with the vehicle control group, the oral administration of PS150TM, but not the other L. fermentum strains, significantly decreased the sleep latency and increased the sleep duration of mice, suggesting strain-specific sleep-improving effects of PS150TM. Moreover, the ingestion of diphenhydramine, an antihistamine used to treat insomnia, as a drug control group, only increased the sleep duration of mice. We also found that the sleep-improving effects of PS150TM are time- and dose-dependent. Furthermore, the oral administration of PS150TM could attenuate a caffeine-induced sleep disturbance in mice, and PS150TM appeared to increase the expression of the gene encoding the adenosine 1 receptor in the hypothalamus of mice, as assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Taken together, our results present a potential application of PS150TM as a dietary supplement for sleep improvement.
Highlights
Insomnia is a common disorder characterized by difficulty falling asleep and hardly maintaining sleep or waking up too early
The oral administration of a well-known antihistamine drug used as a sleep aid, diphenhydramine (DIPH), only showed increased sleep duration, but no improvement in sleep latency or recovery time was observed on day 14 of our experiment, which is consistent with previous findings [30,31]
These results indicate that the daily supplementation of PS150 for 28 days attenuated the caffeinethe caffeine-induced sleep disturbance in mice
Summary
Insomnia is a common disorder characterized by difficulty falling asleep and hardly maintaining sleep or waking up too early. 20–30% of adults have chronic insomnia problems (i.e., with a duration of at least 1 month), which is the most prevalent sleep disorder in the general population [1]. It is usually accompanied by psychiatric or physical diseases such as impaired attention, irritability, restlessness, anxiety, and stress or fatigue during wakefulness [2]. A search for alternative ways to treat insomnia is needed.
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