Mechanism of action of probiotics

The modern diet doesn't provide the required amount of beneficial bacteria. Maintenance of a proper microbial ecology in the host is the main criteria to be met for a healthy growth. Probiotics are one such alternative that are supplemented to the host where by and large species of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and Saccharomyces are considered as main probiotics. The field of probiotics has made stupendous strides though there is no major break through in the identification of their mechanism of action. They exert their activity primarily by strengthening the intestinal barrier and immunomodulation. The main objective of the study was to provide a deep insight into the effect of probiotics against the diseases, their applications and proposed mechanism of action

Thirst neurons anticipate the homeostatic consequences of eating and drinking

Thirst motivates animals to drink in order to maintain fluid balance. Traditionally, thirst has been viewed as a homeostatic response to changes in the blood volume or tonicity(1–3). However, most drinking behavior is regulated too rapidly to be controlled by blood composition directly and instead appears to anticipate homeostatic imbalances before they arise(4–11). How this is achieved remains unknown. Here we reveal an unexpected role for the subfornical organ (SFO) in the anticipatory regulation of thirst. We show by monitoring deep-brain calcium dynamics that thirst-promoting SFO neurons respond to inputs from the oral cavity during eating and drinking, which they then integrate with information about the composition of the blood. This integration allows SFO neurons to predict how ongoing food and water consumption will alter fluid balance in the future and then adjust behavior preemptively. Complementary optogenetic manipulations show that this anticipatory modulation is necessary for drinking in multiple contexts. These findings provide a neural mechanism to explain longstanding behavioral observations, including the prevalence of drinking during meals(10,11), the rapid satiation of thirst(7–9), and the fact that oral cooling is thirst-quenching(12–14)