Angstrom6

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of probiotic and synbiotic supplementation on the depression and anxiety symptoms and serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) level.

Seventy-five HD patients were randomly assigned to receive the synbiotic (15 g of prebiotics, 5 g of probiotic containing Lactobacillus acidophilus T16, Bifidobacterium bifidum BIA-6, Bifidobacterium lactis BIA-7, and Bifidobacterium longum BIA-8 (2.7 × 10⁷ CFU/g each)) or probiotics (5 g probiotics as in synbiotic group with 15 g of maltodextrin as placebo) or placebo (20 g of maltodextrin) for 12 weeks. Serum BDNF was measured by ELISA kit. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was used to assess symptoms of depression (HADS-DEP) and anxiety (HADS-ANX).

From baseline to 12 weeks, synbiotic supplementation resulted in a significant decrease in HADS-DEP score in a subgroup of patients with depressive symptom (HADS-DEP ≥ 8) compared to the placebo and probiotic supplementation (p = .001, p = .002, respectively) and in all patients compared to the placebo (p = .004). There was no significant difference among the groups in terms of HADS-ANX scores. However, the HADS-ANX scores decreased significantly in the synbiotic group compared to the baseline in all patients (p = .047) and also patients with depressive symptom (p = .03). In addition, in a subgroup of HD patients with depressive symptom, the serum BDNF increased significantly in the synbiotic group when compared to the placebo (p < .001) and probiotic group (p = .011).

Overall, 12 weeks of synbiotic supplementation resulted in greater improvement in depression symptoms and serum BDNF level compared to the probiotic supplementation in HD patients especially in the subgroup of patients with depression symptoms.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a severe blood malignancy associated with a high relapse rate. The current clinical chemotherapy is typically perplexed with serious side effects. Here, A6 peptide-tagged, small and reduction-sensitive polymersomal vincristine sulfate (A6-cPS-VCR) is reported as a novel, smart and specific treatment for CD44 positive AML. A6-cPS-VCR stably loaded with 3.3 wt% VCR displays a size of ≈ 31 nm and pronounced selectivity toward CD44-overexpressed MV4-11 leukemia cells. Intriguingly, A6-cPS-VCR effectively represses the outgrowth of orthotopic MV4-11 AML in vivo, as revealed by significant reduction of leukemia burdens in the circulation, bone marrow, liver and spleen, and significantly extends the median survival time of MV4-11 AML-bearing mice. In addition to active targetability and therapeutic benefits, A6-cPS-VCR has the advantage of easy fabrication, rendering it potentially interesting for clinical translation.