Abstract: Parkinsonâ??s disease (PD) is one of the common long-term degenerative disorders that\nprimarily affect motor systems. Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are common in individuals with PD\nand often present before motor symptoms. It has been found that gut dysbiosis to PD pathology\nis related to the severity of motor and non-motor symptoms in PD. Probiotics have been reported\nto have the ability to improve the symptoms related to constipation in PD patients. However,\nthe evidence from preclinical or clinical research to verify the beneficial effects of probiotics for\nthe motor functions in PD is still limited. An experimental PD animal model could be helpful in\nexploring the potential therapeutic strategy using probiotics. In the current study, we examined\nwhether daily and long-term administration of probiotics has neuroprotective effects on nigrostriatal\ndopamine neurons and whether it can further alleviate the motor dysfunctions in PD mice. Transgenic\nMitoPark PD mice were chosen for this study and the effects of daily probiotic treatment on gait,\nbeam balance, motor coordination, and the degeneration levels of dopaminergic neurons were\nidentified. From the results, compared with the sham treatment group, we found that the daily\nadministration of probiotics significantly reduced the motor impairments in gait pattern, balance\nfunction, and motor coordination. Immunohistochemically, a tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive cell\nin the substantia nigra was significantly preserved in the probiotic-treated PD mice. These results\nshowed that long-term administration of probiotics has neuroprotective effects on dopamine neurons\nand further attenuates the deterioration of motor dysfunctions in MitoPark PD mice. Our data further\nhighlighted the promising possibility of the potential use of probiotics, which could be the relevant\napproach for further application on human PD subjects.
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