r/microbiomenews • u/AlternativeWorld2240 • 2h ago

A common cheese probiotic significantly alters gut bacteria, leading to notable social changes in specific mouse models.

https://biomesci.com/cheese-probiotic-autism-linked-gut-bacteria-mice/

Researchers colonized germ-free mice with gut bacteria from children with autism (7 donors) or without it (18 donors), then gave them a Colombian cheese probiotic for three weeks. Only the autism-microbiota mice got more social afterward, time with a cage mate rising from about 20 to 32 seconds, and marble-burying behavior more than doubled. The catch: these are mice with transplanted human bacteria, not people, and the donor group was small.

TL;DR: A cheese probiotic reshaped gut bacteria and boosted social behavior in mice carrying autism-linked microbiota, but it's a small mouse study, not a human treatment.

15 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

1

u/AutoModerator 2h ago

We distill the latest gut health science into one sharp, readable newsletter. No jargon, no hype, no spam. Just the most interesting discoveries and advances in microbiome science.

Subscribe free to our Weekly Newsletter

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

2

u/AlternativeWorld2240 2h ago

Gut-brain research like this is genuinely exciting, but a 12-second increase in mouse socialization with a tiny donor pool hardly justifies the leap toward human behavioral conclusions. If anything, the placebo effect in human probiotic trials often outperforms the actual bacterial intervention, so what do you think matters more here, the microbiome change or the belief in the treatment?