Synbiotics inhibits gut microbiome perturbation-induced prolongation of migraine-like pain by restoring short-chain fatty acid signaling.

Abstract

Migraine is the most common disabling primary headache disorder. However, currently available therapies for migraine pain are still limited. In the present study, we investigated the effects of gut microbiome perturbation and synbiotics supplementation on migraine-like pain in male mice and explored the underlying mechanism. We observed that the supplementation with synbiotics inhibited Broad-spectrum antibiotics (ABX)-prolonged migraine-like pain. Using 16S rRNA sequencing, we analyzed bacterial composition and abundance in the mouse gut, and we found that the supplementation with synbiotics recovered ABX-reduced Bacteroidota, which produces acetate and propionate in the gut, and such supplementation increased the levels of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in the gut. SCFAs, specifically acetate and propionate, reversed the ABX-caused prolongation of migraine-like pain. We further found that ABX treatment decreased the expression of SCFA receptors in the gut and the supplementation with synbiotics restored the expression of SCFA receptor FFAR2, but not FFAR3, in the gut. Moreover, genetic deletion of FFAR2 in the Ffar2 knockout mice blocked the effect of synbiotics on migraine-like pain. Our results suggest that gut microbiome perturbation contributes to the prolongation of migraine-like pain and synbiotics can inhibit such pain prolongation by recovering disturbed gut microbiome and restoring SCFAs-FFAR2 signaling.