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Gut microbiota: A pivotal hub for polyphenols as antidepressants
Polyphenols are natural organic compounds found in many plants consumed in our diets and carry several health benefits, including antidepressant properties. Although readily absorbed in our small intestine, polyphenols have complicated structures, resulting in a low bioavailability with their arrival at the large intestine virtually unchanged. The gut microbiome, however, acts on polyphenols, breaking them down into absorbable beneficial metabolites, thus helping to increase their bioavailability and allowing for their antidepressant effects to take place via the microbiota-gut-brain (MGB) axis. In return, the gut microbiota use polyphenol substrates for their nutrition, allowing them to flourish and maintain the intestinal barrier. In this review by Zhou et al. (2020), the authors outline the crucial relationship between the gut microbiome and the processing of polyphenols and/or their metabolic products, and the resultant antidepressant effects. The authors comment that this postulates the potential use of the gut microbiome as a target for treating depression. [NPID: Antidepressant, depression, gut microbiota, polyphenols, the microbial-gut-brain axis]
Year: 2020
