scholarly journals Gut Microbiota and Neuroplasticity

Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2084
Author(s):  
Julia Murciano-Brea ◽  
Martin Garcia-Montes ◽  
Stefano Geuna ◽  
Celia Herrera-Rincon
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Intestinal Bacteria ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Brain Physiology ◽  
Bidirectional Communication ◽  
Mental Wellness ◽  
New Research ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain

The accumulating evidence linking bacteria in the gut and neurons in the brain (the microbiota–gut–brain axis) has led to a paradigm shift in the neurosciences. Understanding the neurobiological mechanisms supporting the relevance of actions mediated by the gut microbiota for brain physiology and neuronal functioning is a key research area. In this review, we discuss the literature showing how the microbiota is emerging as a key regulator of the brain’s function and behavior, as increasing amounts of evidence on the importance of the bidirectional communication between the intestinal bacteria and the brain have accumulated. Based on recent discoveries, we suggest that the interaction between diet and the gut microbiota, which might ultimately affect the brain, represents an unprecedented stimulus for conducting new research that links food and mood. We also review the limited work in the clinical arena to date, and we propose novel approaches for deciphering the gut microbiota–brain axis and, eventually, for manipulating this relationship to boost mental wellness.

scholarly journals Gut Microbiota and Their Neuroinflammatory Implications in Alzheimer’s Disease

Nutrients ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vo Giau ◽  
Si Wu ◽  
Angelo Jamerlan ◽  
Seong An ◽  
SangYun Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Bidirectional Communication ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Brain And Behavior ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

The bidirectional communication between the central nervous system (CNS) and the gut microbiota plays a pivotal role in human health. Increasing numbers of studies suggest that the gut microbiota can influence the brain and behavior of patients. Various metabolites secreted by the gut microbiota can affect the cognitive ability of patients diagnosed with neurodegenerative diseases. Nearly one in every ten Korean senior citizens suffers from Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia. This review highlights the impact of metabolites from the gut microbiota on communication pathways between the brain and gut, as well as the neuroinflammatory roles they may have in AD patients. The objectives of this review are as follows: (1) to examine the role of the intestinal microbiota in homeostatic communication between the gut microbiota and the brain, termed the microbiota–gut–brain (MGB) axis; (2) to determine the underlying mechanisms of signal dysfunction; and (3) to assess the impact of signal dysfunction induced by the microbiota on AD. This review will aid in understanding the microbiota of elderly people and the neuroinflammatory roles they may have in AD.

scholarly journals Gut Microbiota and Dysbiosis in Alzheimer’s Disease: Implications for Pathogenesis and Treatment

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (12) ◽  
pp. 5026-5043 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shan Liu ◽  
Jiguo Gao ◽  
Mingqin Zhu ◽  
Kangding Liu ◽  
Hong-Liang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Gut Dysbiosis ◽  
Bidirectional Communication ◽  
Significant Research ◽  
Novel Therapeutic Strategies ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Brain Homeostasis ◽  
Gut Microbiota Composition

Abstract Understanding how gut flora influences gut-brain communications has been the subject of significant research over the past decade. The broadening of the term “microbiota-gut-brain axis” from “gut-brain axis” underscores a bidirectional communication system between the gut and the brain. The microbiota-gut-brain axis involves metabolic, endocrine, neural, and immune pathways which are crucial for the maintenance of brain homeostasis. Alterations in the composition of gut microbiota are associated with multiple neuropsychiatric disorders. Although a causal relationship between gut dysbiosis and neural dysfunction remains elusive, emerging evidence indicates that gut dysbiosis may promote amyloid-beta aggregation, neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Illustration of the mechanisms underlying the regulation by gut microbiota may pave the way for developing novel therapeutic strategies for AD. In this narrative review, we provide an overview of gut microbiota and their dysregulation in the pathogenesis of AD. Novel insights into the modification of gut microbiota composition as a preventive or therapeutic approach for AD are highlighted.

scholarly journals Organ-on-a-Chip for Studying Gut-Brain Interaction Mediated by Extracellular Vesicles in the Gut Microenvironment

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (24) ◽  
pp. 13513
Author(s):  
Min-Hyeok Kim ◽  
Danny van Noort ◽  
Jong Hwan Sung ◽  
Sungsu Park
Keyword(s):  
Extracellular Vesicles ◽  
Communication System ◽  
Membrane Vesicles ◽  
Brain Physiology ◽  
Bidirectional Communication ◽  
Promising Solution ◽  
Organ On A Chip ◽  
And Behavior

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a group of membrane vesicles that play important roles in cell-to-cell and interspecies/interkingdom communications by modulating the pathophysiological conditions of recipient cells. Recent evidence has implied their potential roles in the gut–brain axis (GBA), which is a complex bidirectional communication system between the gut environment and brain pathophysiology. Despite the evidence, the roles of EVs in the gut microenvironment in the GBA are less highlighted. Moreover, there are critical challenges in the current GBA models and analyzing techniques for EVs, which may hinder the research. Currently, advances in organ-on-a-chip (OOC) technologies have provided a promising solution. Here, we review the potential effects of EVs occurring in the gut environment on brain physiology and behavior and discuss how to apply OOCs to research the GBA mediated by EVs in the gut microenvironment.

scholarly journals Drosophila as a Model for Microbiota Studies of Neurodegeneration

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Fukiko Kitani-Morii ◽  
Robert P. Friedland ◽  
Hideki Yoshida ◽  
Toshiki Mizuno
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Fruit Fly ◽  
Endocrine Regulation ◽  
Nutrient Metabolism ◽  
Host Health ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Lateral Sclerosis

Accumulating evidence show that the gut microbiota is deeply involved not only in host nutrient metabolism but also in immune function, endocrine regulation, and chronic disease. In neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the gut-brain axis, the bidirectional interaction between the brain and the gut, provides new route of pathological spread and potential therapeutic targets. Although studies of gut microbiota have been conducted mainly in mice, mammalian gut microbiota is highly diverse, complex, and sensitive to environmental changes. Drosophila melanogaster, a fruit fly, has many advantages as a laboratory animal: short life cycle, numerous and genetically homogenous offspring, less ethical concerns, availability of many genetic models, and low maintenance costs. Drosophila has a simpler gut microbiota than mammals and can be made to remain sterile or to have standardized gut microbiota by simple established methods. Research on the microbiota of Drosophila has revealed new molecules that regulate the brain-gut axis, and it has been shown that dysbiosis of the fly microbiota worsens lifespan, motor function, and neurodegeneration in AD and PD models. The results shown in fly studies represents a fundamental part of the immune and proteomic process involving gut-microbiota interactions that are highly conserved. Even though the fly’s gut microbiota are not simple mimics of humans, flies are a valuable system to learn the molecular mechanisms of how the gut microbiota affect host health and behavior.

scholarly journals Gut and Brain: Investigating Physiological and Pathological Interactions Between Microbiota and Brain to Gain New Therapeutic Avenues for Brain Diseases

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Deidda ◽  
Manuele Biazzo
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Therapeutic Strategy ◽  
Brain Diseases ◽  
Microbial Populations ◽  
Normal Brain ◽  
Neuronal Populations ◽  
Brain Physiology ◽  
Pathological Conditions ◽  
The Brain

Brain physiological functions or pathological dysfunctions do surely depend on the activity of both neuronal and non-neuronal populations. Nevertheless, over the last decades, compelling and fast accumulating evidence showed that the brain is not alone. Indeed, the so-called “gut brain,” composed of the microbial populations living in the gut, forms a symbiotic superorganism weighing as the human brain and strongly communicating with the latter via the gut–brain axis. The gut brain does exert a control on brain (dys)functions and it will eventually become a promising valuable therapeutic target for a number of brain pathologies. In the present review, we will first describe the role of gut microbiota in normal brain physiology from neurodevelopment till adulthood, and thereafter we will discuss evidence from the literature showing how gut microbiota alterations are a signature in a number of brain pathologies ranging from neurodevelopmental to neurodegenerative disorders, and how pre/probiotic supplement interventions aimed to correct the altered dysbiosis in pathological conditions may represent a valuable future therapeutic strategy.

The Internal Image: Mind and Brain in the Age of Charcot

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Katrin Schultheiss
Keyword(s):  
Physiological Mechanism ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Term ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Brain Physiology ◽  
Internal Image ◽  
Cerebral Localization ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Brain

This article uses the work of French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot and his contemporaries to explore the central role played by internal or mental images in late nineteenth-century understandings of mental function. It argues that the assumed existence of internal images allowed scientists and clinicians of the time to integrate experimental psychological work on mental pathologies such as memory dysfunction, hysteria, hypnosis, and hallucination into contemporary research on brain physiology. The internal image—a general term that embraced concepts such as “memory images,” “sensory images,” and multi-faceted “language images”—linked older ideas about how memory, perception, and consciousness worked with new research on cerebral localization that dominated studies of the brain throughout Europe and the United States. For practitioners of the new physiological (also called experimental) psychology, internal images offered a physiological mechanism for explaining how sensory perceptions are transformed into memories, how memories create perceptions of the self, how the brain generates ideas, and how all these processes can go awry.

scholarly journals Chemical Aspects of Gut Metabolism of Flavonoids

Metabolites ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaehong Han
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Chemical Reactions ◽  
Intestinal Bacteria ◽  
Small World ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Bioactive Metabolites ◽  
Cleavage Reaction ◽  
Ether Cleavage ◽  
Aryl Methyl ◽  
Gut Metabolism

The intestine is a small world where all the chemical reactions are operated by gut microbiota. Study on the gut metabolism of natural products is a new and expanding research area that leads to new bioactive metabolites, as well as novel chemical reactions. To provide exemplary cases, flavonoid biotransformation by intestinal bacteria with focus on S-equol biosynthesis and aryl methyl ether cleavage reaction, is described in this review.

scholarly journals Oral berberine improves brain dopa/dopamine levels to ameliorate Parkinson’s disease by regulating gut microbiota

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Wang ◽  
Qian Tong ◽  
Shu-Rong Ma ◽  
Zhen-Xiong Zhao ◽  
Li-Bin Pan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Intestinal Bacteria ◽  
Brain Dopamine ◽  
Laser Desorption Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Ms Imaging ◽  
Rate Limiting ◽  
The Brain

AbstractThe phenylalanine–tyrosine–dopa–dopamine pathway provides dopamine to the brain. In this process, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) is the rate-limiting enzyme that hydroxylates tyrosine and generates levodopa (l-dopa) with tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) as a coenzyme. Here, we show that oral berberine (BBR) might supply H• through dihydroberberine (reduced BBR produced by bacterial nitroreductase) and promote the production of BH4 from dihydrobiopterin; the increased BH4 enhances TH activity, which accelerates the production of l-dopa by the gut bacteria. Oral BBR acts in a way similar to vitamins. The l-dopa produced by the intestinal bacteria enters the brain through the circulation and is transformed to dopamine. To verify the gut–brain dialog activated by BBR’s effect, Enterococcus faecalis or Enterococcus faecium was transplanted into Parkinson’s disease (PD) mice. The bacteria significantly increased brain dopamine and ameliorated PD manifestation in mice; additionally, combination of BBR with bacteria showed better therapeutic effect than that with bacteria alone. Moreover, 2,4,6-trimethyl-pyranylium tetrafluoroborate (TMP-TFB)-derivatized matrix-assisted laser desorption mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) imaging of dopamine identified elevated striatal dopamine levels in mouse brains with oral Enterococcus, and BBR strengthened the imaging intensity of brain dopamine. These results demonstrated that BBR was an agonist of TH in Enterococcus and could lead to the production of l-dopa in the gut. Furthermore, a study of 28 patients with hyperlipidemia confirmed that oral BBR increased blood/fecal l-dopa by the intestinal bacteria. Hence, BBR might improve the brain function by upregulating the biosynthesis of l-dopa in the gut microbiota through a vitamin-like effect.

scholarly journals Probiotics, Prebiotics and Postbiotics on Mitigation of Depression Symptoms: Modulation of the Brain–Gut–Microbiome Axis

Biomolecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1000
Author(s):  
Agata Chudzik ◽  
Anna Orzyłowska ◽  
Radosław Rola ◽  
Greg J. Stanisz
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Gut Microbiome ◽  
Depressive Disorders ◽  
Corticosterone Level ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
Symptoms Of Depression ◽  
Bidirectional Communication ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Communication Pathway ◽  
The Brain

The brain–gut–microbiome axis is a bidirectional communication pathway between the gut microbiota and the central nervous system. The growing interest in the gut microbiota and mechanisms of its interaction with the brain has contributed to the considerable attention given to the potential use of probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics in the prevention and treatment of depressive disorders. This review discusses the up-to-date findings in preclinical and clinical trials regarding the use of pro-, pre- and postbiotics in depressive disorders. Studies in rodent models of depression show that some of them inhibit inflammation, decrease corticosterone level and change the level of neurometabolites, which consequently lead to mitigation of the symptoms of depression. Moreover, certain clinical studies have indicated improvement in mood as well as changes in biochemical parameters in patients suffering from depressive disorders.

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