Depression is a debilitating psychiatric ailment which exerts disastrous effects on one’s mental and physical health. Depression is accountable for augmentation of various life-threatening maladies such as neurodegenerative anomalies, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Depressive episodes are recurrent, pose a negative impact on life quality, decline life expectancy and enhance suicidal tendencies. Anti-depression chemotherapy displays marked adverse effects and frequent relapses. Thus, newer therapeutic interventions to prevent or combat depression are desperately required. Discovery of gut microbes as our mutualistic partner was made long time ago and it is surprising that their functions still continue to expand and as of yet many are still to be uncovered. Experimental studies have revealed astonishing role of gut commensals in gut-brain signaling, immune homeostasis and hormonal regulation. Now, it is a well-established fact that gut microbes can alleviate stress or depression associated symptoms by modulating brain functions. Here in, we provide an overview of physiological alleyways involved in cross-talk between gut and brain, part played by probiotics in regulation of these pathways and use of probiotic bacteria as psychobiotics in various mental or depressive disorders.

抑郁症是一种使人衰弱的精神疾病，会对人的身心健康造成灾难性的影响。抑郁是导致各种威胁生命的疾病如神经退行性异常，心血管疾病和糖尿病的原因。抑郁发作反复发作，对生活质量造成负面影响，降低预期寿命并增强自杀倾向。抗抑郁化学疗法显示出明显的不良反应和频繁复发。因此，迫切需要新的预防或预防抑郁症的治疗干预措施。作为我们的互助伙伴，肠道微生物的发现是很久以前的，令人惊讶的是它们的功能仍在继续扩展，并且至今仍未被发现。实验研究表明，肠道共刺激在肠道脑信号传导，免疫稳态和激素调节中具有惊人的作用。现在，众所周知的事实是，肠道微生物可以通过调节脑功能来缓解与压力或抑郁相关的症状。在本文中，我们提供了涉及肠道和大脑之间相互干扰的生理通道的概述，这是益生菌在调节这些途径中所起的作用，以及益生菌在各种精神或抑郁症中作为精神药物的用途。