Gut bacteria play key role in anti seizure effects of ketogenic diet

However, there has been no clear explanation for exactly how the diet aids children with epilepsy.

Hsiao’s research team conducted a comprehensive investigation into whether the microbiota influences the ability of the diet to protect against seizures and if so, how the microbiota achieves these effects.

“In both cases, we found the ketogenic diet was no longer effective in protecting against seizures, this suggests that the gut microbiota is required for the diet to effectively reduce seizures.”

They identified two types of bacteria that were elevated by the diet and play a key role in providing this protection: Akkermansia muciniphila and Parabacteroides species.

“We found we could restore seizure protection if we gave these particular types of bacteria together, If we gave either species alone, the bacteria did not protect against seizures; this suggests that these different bacteria perform a unique function when they are together.”

Olson said

They found that the bacteria that were elevated by the ketogenic diet alter levels of biochemicals in the gut and the blood in ways that affect neurotransmitters in the hippocampus.

How do the bacteria do this? 

“The bacteria increased brain levels of GABA — a neurotransmitter that silences neurons — relative to brain levels of glutamate, a neurotransmitter that activates neurons to fire,” 

said co-author Helen Vuong, a postdoctoral scholar in Hsiao’s laboratory.

Vuong said.

“The implications for health and disease are promising, but much more research needs to be done to test whether discoveries in mice also apply to humans,”

said Hsiao, who has helped to develop a company that will examine the potential clinical applications of her laboratory’s findings.