Huang Fei, Wu Xiaojun
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Compound Chinese Medicines, The Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, Shanghai R&D Center for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Front Cell Dev Biol. 2021 Mar 11;9:649103. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.649103. eCollection 2021.
Anxiety and depression are highly prevalent mental illnesses worldwide and have long been thought to be closely associated to neurotransmitter modulation. There is growing evidence indicating that changes in the composition of the gut microbiota are related to mental health including anxiety and depression. In this review, we focus on combining the intestinal microbiota with serotonergic, dopaminergic, and noradrenergic neurotransmission in brain, with special emphasis on the anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in stress-related rodent models. Therefore, we reviewed studies conducted on germ-free rodents, or in animals subjected to microbiota absence using antibiotics, as well as via the usage of probiotics. All the results strongly support that the brain neurotransmitter modulation by gut microbiota is indispensable to the physiopathology of anxiety and depression. However, a lot of work is needed to determine how gut microbiota mediated neurotransmission in human brain has any physiological significance and, if any, how it can be used in therapy. Overall, the gut microbiota provides a novel way to alter neurotransmitter modulation in the brain and treat gut-brain axis diseases, such as anxiety and depression.
焦虑和抑郁是全球范围内极为普遍的精神疾病，长期以来人们一直认为它们与神经递质调节密切相关。越来越多的证据表明，肠道微生物群组成的变化与包括焦虑和抑郁在内的心理健康有关。在本综述中，我们着重探讨肠道微生物群与大脑中血清素能、多巴胺能和去甲肾上腺素能神经传递的结合，特别关注应激相关啮齿动物模型中的焦虑样和抑郁样行为。因此，我们回顾了对无菌啮齿动物、使用抗生素使微生物群缺失的动物以及使用益生菌的动物所进行的研究。所有结果都有力地支持，肠道微生物群对大脑神经递质的调节对于焦虑和抑郁的病理生理学是不可或缺的。然而，仍需要大量工作来确定肠道微生物群如何介导人类大脑中的神经传递具有何种生理意义，以及如果有意义的话，如何将其用于治疗。总体而言，肠道微生物群为改变大脑中的神经递质调节以及治疗肠-脑轴疾病（如焦虑和抑郁）提供了一种新方法。
