A study led by our co-president Carmen Sandi showed that Urolithin A, a molecule produced by gut bacteria and already known to support mitochondrial health, reversed high-anxiety behaviors in the anxious rats while leaving normal rats unaffected.
The researchers gave Urolithin A to animals at a dose similar to previous studies (25 mg/kg/day) and analyzed anxiety-related behaviors as well as levels of gene expression inside “medium spiny neurons” in the rats’ nucleus accumbens, a brain region central to anxiety regulation. The molecular and cellular changes observed lined up with improvements seen in the rats’ anxiety.
Urolithin A having already been shown to be safe in humans, the study’s findings could be rapidly translated into clinical trials.
