Colon-Perez Luis, Montesinos Johanna, Monsivais Mildred
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, United States; Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX 76107, United States.
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, United States.
Brain Res. 2022 Apr 15;1781:147835. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2022.147835. Epub 2022 Feb 13.
The gut-brain axis (GBA) has gained significant attention due to its putative contribution to neuropsychiatric disorders; however, the integration of GBA and the commonly used approach of MR neuroimaging in substance use disorders (SUD) research is unexplored. GBA research potentially will expand our understanding of addiction and provide a new paradigm to develop new SUDs therapeutics. SUDs research has a long history of describing the role of dopaminergic signaling in motivated behaviors and abnormal behavior traits distinctive of drug-seeking and drug use. Neuroimaging has been a valuable tool in this endeavor providing insights to understand in vivo mechanisms of drug-induced neural changes and aberrant circuitry after exposure to drugs of abuse in humans and animal models of SUDs. However, the up-and-coming GBA focus research can be an ideal complement to neuroimaging. GBA and neuroimaging can elucidate the complex interactions between the brain and gut that lead to pathological drug seeking and consumption and their relation to GBA components (i.e., bacterial populations, gut peptides, and gut signaling). Functional MRI and diffusion MRI are suitable candidates to elucidate new biomarkers of altered brain function and structure. In conjunction with gut microbiota analysis, neuroimaging provides us with the means to further understand the role of dysbiosis alternations in the gut microbiota in SUDs and further understand the bi-directional relationship between gut and brain. To this end, we review the potential avenues of GBA and neuroimaging collaboration for SUD research and potential targets for MR research biomarkers of SUD.
肠-脑轴（GBA）因其对神经精神疾病的假定作用而备受关注；然而，GBA与物质使用障碍（SUD）研究中常用的磁共振神经成像方法的整合尚未得到探索。GBA研究可能会扩展我们对成瘾的理解，并为开发新的SUD治疗方法提供新的范例。SUD研究在描述多巴胺能信号在动机行为以及寻求药物和使用药物所特有的异常行为特征中的作用方面有着悠久的历史。神经成像一直是这项工作中的宝贵工具，有助于了解人类和SUD动物模型在接触滥用药物后药物诱导的神经变化和异常神经回路的体内机制。然而，新兴的GBA重点研究可能是神经成像的理想补充。GBA和神经成像可以阐明大脑与肠道之间导致病理性药物寻求和消费的复杂相互作用，以及它们与GBA成分（即细菌群体、肠道肽和肠道信号）的关系。功能磁共振成像和扩散磁共振成像适合用于阐明大脑功能和结构改变的新生物标志物。结合肠道微生物群分析，神经成像为我们提供了进一步了解肠道微生物群失调在SUD中的作用以及进一步理解肠道与大脑之间双向关系的方法。为此，我们综述了GBA与神经成像在SUD研究中的合作潜在途径以及SUD磁共振研究生物标志物的潜在靶点。
