Microbiome—The Missing Link in the Gut-Brain Axis: Focus on Its Role in Gastrointestinal and Mental Health (original) (raw)
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RELATIONSHIP OF GUT MICROBIOTA AND MENTAL HEALTH: THE INFLUENCE OF THE GUT-BRAIN AXIS (Atena Editora), 2024
Introduction: The intestinal microbiota, composed of a diversity of microorganisms, plays a crucial role in mental health through the Gut-Brain Axis. This study sought to deepen the understanding of this relationship and its influence on the organism's homeostasis. Rationale: Understanding the influence of the intestinal microbiota on the Gut-Brain Axis is essential to identify new therapeutic and preventive approaches in the area of mental health, emphasizing the importance of a balanced microbiota for emotional and cognitive balance. Objectives: Analyze the relationship between the intestine and the brain and its influence on maintaining body stability. Methods: A qualitative approach was adopted through a literature review. The research involved the selection of scientific articles in databases such as PubMed, SciELO and LILACS, using descriptors such as "Brain-Gut Axis", "Brain" and "Mental Health" combined with the Boolean term "AND". Articles in Portuguese and English from the last seven years (2017 to 2023) were considered, excluding studies outside the scope of the research or with paid access. Results: Evidence indicates that the intestinal microbiota has significant potential to modulate the functions of the gastrointestinal tract and the brain through the Gut-Brain Microbiota Axis, a bidirectional communication pathway between these organs. Conclusions: The gut microbiota plays a crucial role in regulating gastrointestinal and brain functions through the Gut-Brain Microbiota Axis, using microbial signals and metabolites. However, longitudinal studies in humans are urgently needed to understand the origins and consequences of microbial imbalances, which are linked to neurological and neuroendocrine disorders. New experimental approaches under development promise to significantly contribute to essential advances in this field, providing essential discoveries in this area, highlighting the solid connection between the gut microbiota and mental health, reinforcing the importance of maintaining a balanced microbiota for psychological well-being.
The Microbiota–Gut–Brain Axis: Psychoneuroimmunological Insights
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There is growing interest in the role that the intestinal microbiota and the related autoimmune processes may have in the genesis and presentation of some psychiatric diseases. An alteration in the communication of the microbiota–gut–brain axis, which constitutes a communicative model between the central nervous system (CNS) and the gastro-enteric tract, has been identified as one of the possible causes of some psychiatric diseases. The purpose of this narrative review is to describe evidence supporting a role of the gut microbiota in psychiatric diseases and the impact of diet on microbiota and mental health. Change in the composition of the gut microbiota could determine an increase in the permeability of the intestinal barrier, leading to a cytokine storm. This could trigger a systemic inflammatory activation and immune response: this series of events could have repercussions on the release of some neurotransmitters, altering the activity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axi...
Gut-Brain Axis and its Neuro-Psychiatric Effects: A Narrative Review
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The gut microbiota regulates the function and health of the human gut. Preliminary evidence suggests its impact on multiple human systems including the nervous and immune systems. A major area of research has been the directional relationship between intestinal microbiota and the central nervous system (CNS), called the microbiota-gut-brain axis. It is hypothesized that the intestinal microbiota affects brain activity and behavior via endocrine, neural, and immune pathways. An alteration in the composition of the gut microbiome has been linked to a variety of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. The connection between gut microbiome and several CNS disorders indicates that the focus of research in the future should be on the bacterial and biochemical targets. Through this review, we outline the established knowledge regarding the gut microbiome and gut-brain axis. In addition to gut microbiome in neurological and psychiatry diseases, we have briefly discussed microbial metabolites affecting the blood-brain barrier (BBB), immune dysregulation, modification of autonomic sensorimotor connections, and hypothalamuspituitary-adrenal axis.
IP innovative publication pvt. ltd, 2019
Current research shows that the gastro-intestinal and central nervous systems are linked by multiple interconnecting layers and have been known to continually influence each other’s actions. The enteric nervous system, vagus, hypothalamic pituitary axis, and the local endocrine system are few of the components of this complex system, forming neurological, immunological as well as endocrine bridges through which information relay occurs. In addition, the gut microbiota exerts overarching influence on all these components, directly and indirectly affecting the brain and impacting human behaviour. This, in effect, creates a gut-brain-microbiotal (GBM) axis, which has a potential role in various physiological functions. It is also implicated in pathological processes as well, and is found to have a role in many psychiatric conditions such as autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, mood disorders, substance use and neurodegenerative disorders. The mechanisms involved in each disorder, as well as psychological correlates of the GBM axis, along with potential treatment implications involving microbiota and possible strategies to modulate microbiota to affect changes in psychiatric symptoms are explored in this article.
The brain-gut-microbiota axis in the treatment of neurologic and psychiatric disorders
Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria
The human gut microbiota is a complex ecosystem made of trillions of microorganisms. The composition can be affected by diet, metabolism, age, geography, stress, seasons, temperature, sleep, and medications. The increasing evidence about the existence of a close and bi-directional correlation between the gut microbiota and the brain indicates that intestinal imbalance may play a vital role in the development, function, and disorders of the central nervous system. The mechanisms of interaction between the gut-microbiota on neuronal activity are widely discussed. Several potential pathways are involved with the brain-gut-microbiota axis, including the vagus nerve, endocrine, immune, and biochemical pathways. Gut dysbiosis has been linked to neurological disorders in different ways that involve activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, imbalance in neurotransmitter release, systemic inflammation, and increase in the permeability of the intestinal and the blood-brain barrie...
The Microbiota and Gut-Brain Axis
Journal of Mood Disorders, 2016
The microbiota and gut-brain axis The ability of gut microbiota to communicate with the brain and hence modulate behavior is an emerging novel concept in health and disease. The enteric microbiota interacts with the host to form essential relationships that govern homeostasis. Although enteric bacterial fingerprint of each individual is quite unique, there appears to be a certain balance that confers individual's health benefits. A developing number of studies demonstrated that the microbiome of the human digestive tract might have had an effect on the elements of the focal anxious framework (CNS), through recognized pathways called the gut-brain axis. Recent data showed that the human microbiome ecosystem interfered with the brain's development, central signaling systems, and behavior. It has been proposed that the disruption of the human microbiome may contribute to the etiology and course of some psychiatric disorders. Therefore, a decrease in the desirable gastrointestinal bacteria would lead to deterioration in gastrointestinal, neuroendocrine, immune functioning and consequently an illness. This review article presents an overview about the main pathways of the gut-brain axis and consequences of stress to the individual components.
Journal of neurogastroenterology and motility, 2016
Gut microbiome is an integral part of the Gut-Brain axis. It is becoming increasingly recognized that the presence of a healthy and diverse gut microbiota is important to normal cognitive and emotional processing. It was known that altered emotional state and chronic stress can change the composition of gut microbiome, but it is becoming more evident that interaction between gut microbiome and central nervous system is bidirectional. Alteration in the composition of the gut microbiome can potentially lead to increased intestinal permeability and impair the function of the intestinal barrier. Subsequently, neuro-active compounds and metabolites can gain access to the areas within the central nervous system that regulate cognition and emotional responses. Deregulated inflammatory response, promoted by harmful microbiota, can activate the vagal system and impact neuropsychological functions. Some bacteria can produce peptides or short chain fatty acids that can affect gene expression a...
The Microbiota/Microbiome and the Gut–Brain Axis: How Much Do They Matter in Psychiatry?
Life, 2021
The functioning of the central nervous system (CNS) is the result of the constant integration of bidirectional messages between the brain and peripheral organs, together with their connections with the environment. Despite the anatomical separation, gut microbiota, i.e., the microorganisms colonising the gastrointestinal tract, is highly related to the CNS through the so-called “gut–brain axis”. The aim of this paper was to review and comment on the current literature on the role of the intestinal microbiota and the gut–brain axis in some common neuropsychiatric conditions. The recent literature indicates that the gut microbiota may affect brain functions through endocrine and metabolic pathways, antibody production and the enteric network while supporting its possible role in the onset and maintenance of several neuropsychiatric disorders, neurodevelopment and neurodegenerative disorders. Alterations in the gut microbiota composition were observed in mood disorders and autism spect...
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Over the last 10 years, there has been a growing interest in the relationship between gut microbiota, the brain, and neurologic-associated affections. As multiple preclinical and clinical research studies highlight gut microbiota’s potential to modulate the general state of health state, it goes without saying that gut microbiota plays a significant role in neurogenesis, mental and cognitive development, emotions, and behaviors, and in the progression of neuropsychiatric illnesses. Gut microbiota produces important biologic products that, through the gut-brain axis, are directly connected with the appearance and evolution of neurological and psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, autism, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, multiple sclerosis, and epilepsy. This study reviews recent research on the link between gut microbiota and the brain, and microbiome’s role in shaping the development of the most common neurological and...
International Journal of Health Sciences and Research, 2015
Gut flora or, more appropriately, gut microbiota, is an ideal example of a symbiotic relationship between prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Although microbes are considered as pathogens, but gut microbiota’s symbiotic co-evolution with humans over thousands of years has made it almost a virtual human organ, with unfailing existence and designated functions. Effective genetic variation of gut microbiota and their resulting metabolites has impact on host metabolism, maturation of immune system and even on behavioral development and patterns; indicating the existence of microbial-gut-brain axis. The understanding of microbial-gut-brain axis will pave the way for the researcher to develop new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, metabolic disorders as well as mood and behavioral patterns. Key word: Microbiota; Microbe-gut-brain axis; Behavioral disorder; Gastrointestinal disorder.