Targeting the gut microbiota to influence brain development and function in early life

2018 ◽  
Vol 95 ◽  
pp. 191-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shugui Wang ◽  
Louise Harvey ◽  
Rocio Martin ◽  
Eline M. van der Beek ◽  
Jan Knol ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Early Life ◽  
And Function

Microbiota-immune interactions: from gut to brain

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eloisa Salvo-Romero ◽  
Patricia Stokes ◽  
Mélanie G. Gareau
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Immune System ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Immune Cells ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Immune System Development ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Brain

The vast diversity of bacteria that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract strongly influence host physiology, not only nutrient metabolism but also immune system development and function. The complexity of the microbiota is matched by the complexity of the host immune system, where they have coevolved to maintain homeostasis ensuring the mutualistic host-microbial relationship. Numerous studies in recent years investigating the gut-brain axis have demonstrated an important role for the gut microbiota in modulating brain development and function, with the immune system serving as an important coordinator of these interactions. Gut bacteria can modulate not only gut-resident immune cells but also brain-resident immune cells. Activation of the immune system in the gut and in the brain are implicated in responses to neuroinflammation, brain injury, as well as changes in neurogenesis and plasticity. Impairments in this bidirectional communication are implicated in the etiopathogenesis of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental diseases and disorders, including autism spectrum disorders, or comorbidities associated with Gastrointestinal diseases, including inflammatory bowel diseases, where dysbiosis is commonly seen. Consequently, probiotics, or beneficial microbes, are being recognized as promising therapeutic targets to modulate behavior and brain development by modulating the gut microbiota. Here we review the role of microbiota-immune interactions in the gut and the brain during homeostasis and disease and their impact on gut-brain communication, brain function, and behavior as well as the use of probiotics in central nervous system alterations. Statement of novelty: The microbiota-gut-brain axis is increasingly recognized as an important physiological pathway for maintaining health and impacting the brain and central nervous system. Increasing evidence suggests that the immune system is crucial for gut-brain signaling. In this review, we highlight the critical studies in the literature that identify the key immune pathways involved.

scholarly journals On the early-life origins of vulnerability to opioid addiction

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia C Levis ◽  
Brandon S Bentzley ◽  
Jenny Molet ◽  
Jessica L Bolton ◽  
Christina R Perrone ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Opioid Addiction ◽  
Opioid Abuse ◽  
Female Rats ◽  
Early Life Adversity ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Function ◽  
Reward Circuit

AbstractThe origins and neural bases of the current opioid addiction epidemic are unclear. Genetics plays a major role in addiction vulnerability, but cannot account for the recent exponential rise in opioid abuse, so environmental factors must contribute. Individuals with history of early-life adversity (ELA) are disproportionately prone to opioid addiction, yet whether ELA interacts with factors such as increased access to opioids to directly influence brain development and function and cause opioid addiction vulnerability is unknown. We simulated ELA in female rats and this led to a striking opioid addiction-like phenotype. This was characterized by resistance to extinction, increased relapse-like behavior, and, as in addicted humans, major increases in opioid economic demand. By contrast, seeking of a less salient natural reward was unaffected by ELA, whereas demand for highly palatable treats was augmented. These discoveries provide novel insights into the origins and nature of reward circuit malfunction that may set the stage for addiction.

scholarly journals Neuroimmunological effects of early life experiences

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 239821282095370
Author(s):  
Nichola M. Brydges ◽  
Jack Reddaway
Keyword(s):  
Brain Development ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Psychiatric Illness ◽  
Environmental Enrichment ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Brain Morphology ◽  
Normal Brain ◽  
Neuroimmune System ◽  
And Function

Exposure to adverse experiences during development increases the risk of psychiatric illness later in life. Growing evidence suggests a role for the neuroimmune system in this relationship. There is now substantial evidence that the immune system is critical for normal brain development and behaviour, and responds to environmental perturbations experienced early in life. Severe or chronic stress results in dysregulated neuroimmune function, concomitant with abnormal brain morphology and function. Positive experiences including environmental enrichment and exercise exert the opposite effect, promoting normal brain and immune function even in the face of early life stress. The neuroimmune system may therefore provide a viable target for prevention and treatment of psychiatric illness. This review will briefly summarise the neuroimmune system in brain development and function, and review the effects of stress and positive environmental experiences during development on neuroimmune function. There are also significant sex differences in how the neuroimmune system responds to environmental experiences early in life, which we will briefly review.

scholarly journals Epigenetic mechanisms elicited by nutrition in early life

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Berni Canani ◽  
Margherita Di Costanzo ◽  
Ludovica Leone ◽  
Giorgio Bedogni ◽  
Paolo Brambilla ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Dietary Factors ◽  
Epigenetic Mechanisms ◽  
Adult Health ◽  
Peripheral Tissues ◽  
Expression Of Genes ◽  
Health Promoting ◽  
And Function

A growing number of studies focusing on the developmental origin of health and disease hypothesis have identified links among early nutrition, epigenetic processes and diseases also in later life. Different epigenetic mechanisms are elicited by dietary factors in early critical developmental ages that are able to affect the susceptibility to several diseases in adulthood. The studies here reviewed suggest that maternal and neonatal diet may have long-lasting effects in the development of non-communicable chronic adulthood diseases, in particular the components of the so-called metabolic syndrome, such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, obesity, dyslipidaemia, hypertension, and CVD. Both maternal under- and over-nutrition may regulate the expression of genes involved in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. Early postnatal nutrition may also represent a vital determinant of adult health by making an impact on the development and function of gut microbiota. An inadequate gut microbiota composition and function in early life seems to account for the deviant programming of later immunity and overall health status. In this regard probiotics, which have the potential to restore the intestinal microbiota balance, may be effective in preventing the development of chronic immune-mediated diseases. More recently, the epigenetic mechanisms elicited by probiotics through the production of SCFA are hypothesised to be the key to understand how they mediate their numerous health-promoting effects from the gut to the peripheral tissues.

Evaluation effect of antibiotic to gut microbiota in early life based on culturomics, SMRT sequencing and metagenomics sequencing methods

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lihan Wang ◽  
Jiaxin Zhang ◽  
Mengyao Zhou ◽  
Qing Chen ◽  
Xinyan Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Smrt Sequencing ◽  
Complex Disorders ◽  
And Function

Symbiotic gut microbiota in early life plays a vital role in human health, and changes in its communication and function are associated with various complex disorders. In this study, we...

scholarly journals Feeding the brain and nurturing the mind: Linking nutrition and the gut microbiota to brain development

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (46) ◽  
pp. 14105-14112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manu S. Goyal ◽  
Siddarth Venkatesh ◽  
Jeffrey Milbrandt ◽  
Jeffrey I. Gordon ◽  
Marcus E. Raichle
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Societal Implications ◽  
Postnatal Life ◽  
Human Gut ◽  
Nutritional Recommendations ◽  
Higher Cognitive Functions ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

The human gut contains a microbial community composed of tens of trillions of organisms that normally assemble during the first 2–3 y of postnatal life. We propose that brain development needs to be viewed in the context of the developmental biology of this “microbial organ” and its capacity to metabolize the various diets we consume. We hypothesize that the persistent cognitive abnormalities seen in children with undernutrition are related in part to their persistent gut microbiota immaturity and that specific regions of the brain that normally exhibit persistent juvenile (neotenous) patterns of gene expression, including those critically involved in various higher cognitive functions such as the brain’s default mode network, may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of microbiota immaturity in undernourished children. Furthermore, we postulate that understanding the interrelationships between microbiota and brain metabolism in childhood undernutrition could provide insights about responses to injury seen in adults. We discuss approaches that can be used to test these hypotheses, their ramifications for optimizing nutritional recommendations that promote healthy brain development and function, and the potential societal implications of this area of investigation.

scholarly journals Adaptive response to a future life challenge: consequences of early-life environmental complexity in dual-purpose chicks

2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Yan ◽  
Kate Hartcher ◽  
Wen Liu ◽  
Jinlong Xiao ◽  
Hai Xiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Plasma Corticosterone ◽  
Adaptive Plasticity ◽  
Environmental Complexity ◽  
Dual Purpose ◽  
Stress Related Genes ◽  
Life Challenge ◽  
Environmental Challenge

Abstract Conditions in early life play profound and long-lasting effects on the welfare and adaptability to stress of chickens. This study aimed to explore the hypothesis that the provision of environmental complexity in early life improves birds’ adaptive plasticity and ability to cope with a challenge later in life. It also tried to investigate the effect of the gut-brain axis by measuring behavior, stress hormone, gene expression, and gut microbiota. One-day-old chicks were split into 3 groups: (1) a barren environment (without enrichment items) group (BG, n = 40), (2) a litter materials group (LG, n = 40), and (3) a perches with litter materials group (PLG, n = 40). Then, enrichment items were removed and simulated as an environmental challenge at 31 to 53 d of age. Birds were subjected to a predator test at 42 d of age. In the environmental challenge, when compared with LG, PLG birds were characterized by decreased fearfulness, lower plasma corticosterone, improved gut microbial functions, lower relative mRNA expression of GR, and elevated mRNA expressions of stress-related genes CRH, BDNF, and NR2A in the hypothalamus (all P < 0.05). Unexpectedly, the opposite was true for the LG birds when compared with the BG (P < 0.05). Decreased plasma corticosterone and fearfulness were accompanied by altered hypothalamic gene mRNA expressions of BDNF, NR2A, GR, and CRH through the HPA axis in response to altered gut microbial compositions and functions. The findings suggest that gut microbiota may integrate fearfulness, plasma corticosterone, and gene expression in the hypothalamus to provide an insight into the gut-brain axis in chicks. In conclusion, having access to both perches and litter materials in early life allowed birds to cope better with a future challenge. Birds in perches and litter materials environment may have optimal development and adaptive plasticity through the gut-brain axis.

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