Effect of long-term methylene blue treatment on the composition of mouse gut microbiome and its relationship with the cognitive abilities of mice

PLoS One. 2020 Nov 18;15(11):e0241784. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241784. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

In recent years, methylene blue (MB) has attracted considerable interest as a potential drug for the treatment of methemoglobinemia and neurodegenerative diseases. MB is active against microorganisms from various taxonomic groups. However, no studies have yet been conducted on the effect of MB on the intestinal microbiome of model animals. The aim of this work was to study the effect of different concentrations of MB on the mouse gut microbiome and its relationship with the cognitive abilities of mice. We showed that a low MB concentration (15 mg/kg/day) did not cause significant changes in the microbiome composition. The Bacteroidetes/Firmicutes ratio decreased relative to the control on the 2nd and 3rd weeks. A slight decrease in the levels Actinobacteria was detected on the 3rd week of the experiment. Changes in the content of Delta, Gamma, and Epsilonproteobacteria have been also observed. We did not find significant alterations in the composition of intestinal microbiome, which could be an indication of the development of dysbiosis or other gut dysfunction. At the same time, a high concentration of MB (50 mg/kg/day) led to pronounced changes, primarily an increase in the levels of Delta, Gamma and Epsilonproteobacteria. Over 4 weeks of therapy, the treatment with high MB concentration has led to an increase in the median content of Proteobacteria to 7.49% vs. 1.61% in the control group. Finally, we found that MB at a concentration of 15 mg/kg/day improved the cognitive abilities of mice, while negative correlation between the content of Deferribacteres and cognitive parameters was revealed. Our data expand the understanding of the relationship between MB, cognitive abilities, and gut microbiome in respect to the antibacterial properties of MB.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bacteroidetes / genetics
  • Bacteroidetes / metabolism
  • Cognition / drug effects
  • Cognition / physiology
  • Epsilonproteobacteria / genetics
  • Epsilonproteobacteria / metabolism
  • Gastrointestinal Microbiome / drug effects
  • Gastrointestinal Microbiome / genetics
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
  • Maze Learning
  • Methylene Blue / pharmacology*
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Proteobacteria / genetics
  • Proteobacteria / metabolism

Substances

  • Methylene Blue

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the grant of the President of the Russian Federation for young scientists (Project MK-3173.2019.11) to M.Yu.S. and A.P.G.; by RF Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the framework of the national project “Science” (Agreement 075-03-2020-088, Unique number of the register of State tasks 075001X39782002) to V.N.P.