Imagine your brain as a grand library, filled with shelves of memories. But as time goes by, some of those shelves start to gather dust and the books become harder to find. That’s where probiotics come in! In this groundbreaking study, researchers are exploring the influence of probiotics – tiny superheroes that live in your gut – on memory, mood, and overall health in the elderly. The study will involve a double-blind, randomized clinical trial with two groups: one receiving a three-month probiotic intervention and the other taking a placebo. After three months, they’ll switch! To measure the effects, participants will undergo cognitive tests, provide samples of blood, urine, and stool, and wear an actigraphy device to track their physical activity. By analyzing the data, scientists hope to uncover whether probiotics can truly enhance memory and other important factors in older adults. So grab your lab coat and get ready to dive into the fascinating world of gut-brain connections!

BackgroundGut microbiota may influence brain functions. Therefore, we prepared a study protocol for a double-blind, crossover, randomized clinical trial to determine the complex effects of human probiotics on memory, psychological, and biological measures in the elderly.MethodsWe selected eligible participants using an effective electronic questionnaire containing the inclusion and exclusion criteria and a brief electronic cognitive test. One-third of the respondents with the worst cognitive scores on the electronic test are randomized to group A, starting with a 3-month probiotic intervention, and to group B, starting with a placebo. In a crossover design, both groups change their intervention/placebo status after 3 months for the next 3 months. Participants refusing longer personal assessments due to the COVID-19 pandemic were randomly allocated to one of two subgroups assessed online. Participants in both groups are matched in age, education, gender, and cognitive scores on electronic testing at baseline. At three time points, participants are assessed using a neuropsychological battery, self-report measures of mood, a physical fitness test, blood, urine, and stool samples, and actigraphy. A subset of participants also provided their biological samples and underwent the neuropsychological battery in an extended testing phase 3 months after study termination to find out the long-term effect of the intervention.DiscussionThis is the first trial to address the comprehensive effects of human probiotics on memory and many other measures in the elderly. We assume that the probiotic group will have better outcomes than the placebo group after the first and second trimesters. We expect that the probiotic effect will persist for the next 3 months. These study’s findings will contribute to an interesting area of how to improve memory, psychological and biological and other factors naturally and will examine the importance of probiotics for overall health in the elderly.Clinical trial registration[clinicaltrials.gov], identifier [NCT05051501].

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