Oral probiotic therapy improves motor function in a rodent model of sensorimotor stroke

Ischemic stroke is a debilitating neurological disease with few effective therapeutics. Previous work has shown that oral probiotic treatment prior to stroke can attenuate cerebral infarction and neuroinflammation, highlighting the gut-microbiota-brain axis as a novel therapeutic target. Whether a more clinically relevant, post-stroke, administration of probiotics can improve stroke outcomes is unknown. In this study, we examined the effect of post-stroke oral probiotic therapy on motor behavior in the pre-clinical mouse endothelin-1 (ET-1) model of sensorimotor stroke. We found that post-stroke oral probiotic therapy with Cerebiome^® (Lallemand, Montreal, Canada), containing B. longum R0175 and L. helveticus R0052, improved functional recovery and changed the composition of the post-stroke gut microbiota. Interestingly, oral Cerebiome^® administration did not result in alterations of lesion volume or the number of CD8+/Iba1+ cells in the injured tissue. Overall, these findings suggest that probiotic treatment following injury can improve sensorimotor function.