Crosstalk between the microbiota-gut-brain axis and depression

An imbalance in the “microbiota-gut-brain axis”, which reflects the constant bidirectional communication between the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract, has long been used as a hypothesis to interpret the pathogenesis of depression, but this 2020 review outlines the changes observed in the gut microbiota in these depressive states and assesses the association between these alterations with depression-like behavior, demonstrating possible mechanisms involved in this link. Du et al. (2020) proposed the concept that the gut barrier may increase in permeability following gut microbiota changes, leading to activation of systemic inflammation and immune responses, regulation of monoamine neurotransmitter release, disturbance of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and perturbation of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) concentrations, and ultimately depression. The review did realise that a more detailed mechanistic understanding is required to fully realize the importance of the microbiota-gut-brain axis in depression, and thus encouraged further animal and clinical research to explore these potential causative mechanisms. [NPID: microbiome, gut-brain axis, gut microbiota, gut bacteria, gastrointestinal tract, digestion, gut permeability, inflammation, systemic inflammation, the immune system, immunity, HPA axis, HPA, BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, depression, animal]

Year: 2020

Reference: Du, Y., Gao, X. R., Peng, L., & Ge, J. F. (2020). Crosstalk between the microbiota-gut-brain axis and depression. Heliyon, 6(6), e04097. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04097