Institute of Environmental Biology and Life Support Technology, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100083, China.
Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Biotherapy, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, School of Life Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China.
Microbiome. 2023 Apr 24;11(1):88. doi: 10.1186/s40168-023-01506-0.
Psychological health risk is one of the most severe and complex risks in manned deep-space exploration and long-term closed environments. Recently, with the in-depth research of the microbiota-gut-brain axis, gut microbiota has been considered a new approach to maintain and improve psychological health. However, the correlation between gut microbiota and psychological changes inside long-term closed environments is still poorly understood. Herein, we used the "Lunar Palace 365" mission, a 1-year-long isolation study in the Lunar Palace 1 (a closed manned Bioregenerative Life Support System facility with excellent performance), to investigate the correlation between gut microbiota and psychological changes, in order to find some new potential psychobiotics to maintain and improve the psychological health of crew members.
We report some altered gut microbiota that were associated with psychological changes in the long-term closed environment. Four potential psychobiotics (Bacteroides uniformis, Roseburia inulinivorans, Eubacterium rectale, and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii) were identified. On the basis of metagenomic, metaproteomic, and metabolomic analyses, the four potential psychobiotics improved mood mainly through three pathways related to nervous system functions: first, by fermenting dietary fibers, they may produce short-chain fatty acids, such as butyric and propionic acids; second, they may regulate amino acid metabolism pathways of aspartic acid, glutamic acid, tryptophan, etc. (e.g., converting glutamic acid to gamma-aminobutyric acid; converting tryptophan to serotonin, kynurenic acid, or tryptamine); and third, they may regulate other pathways, such as taurine and cortisol metabolism. Furthermore, the results of animal experiments confirmed the positive regulatory effect and mechanism of these potential psychobiotics on mood.
These observations reveal that gut microbiota contributed to a robust effect on the maintenance and improvement of mental health in a long-term closed environment. Our findings represent a key step towards a better understanding the role of the gut microbiome in mammalian mental health during space flight and provide a basis for future efforts to develop microbiota-based countermeasures that mitigate risks to crew mental health during future long-term human space expeditions on the moon or Mars. This study also provides an essential reference for future applications of psychobiotics to neuropsychiatric treatments. Video Abstract.
心理健康风险是载人深空探测和长期密闭环境中最严重和最复杂的风险之一。最近，随着微生物群-肠-脑轴的深入研究，肠道微生物群已被认为是维持和改善心理健康的一种新方法。然而，肠道微生物群与长期密闭环境中心理变化之间的相关性仍知之甚少。在此，我们利用“月宫 365”任务，即在中国“月宫一号”（一个具有优良性能的密闭载人再生生命保障系统）中进行的为期 1 年的隔离研究，来调查肠道微生物群与心理变化之间的相关性，以期找到一些新的潜在益生菌来维持和改善航天员的心理健康。
我们报告了一些与长期密闭环境中心理变化相关的改变的肠道微生物群。鉴定出了 4 种潜在的益生菌（均匀杆菌、菊粉瘤胃球菌、直肠真杆菌和普拉梭菌）。基于宏基因组、宏蛋白质组和代谢组学分析，这 4 种潜在的益生菌主要通过与神经系统功能相关的 3 条途径来改善情绪：首先，通过发酵膳食纤维，它们可能产生短链脂肪酸，如丁酸和丙酸；其次，它们可能调节天冬氨酸、谷氨酸、色氨酸等的氨基酸代谢途径（如将谷氨酸转化为γ-氨基丁酸；将色氨酸转化为 5-羟色胺、犬尿氨酸或色胺）；第三，它们可能调节其他途径，如牛磺酸和皮质醇代谢。此外，动物实验的结果证实了这些潜在益生菌对情绪的积极调节作用和机制。
这些观察结果表明，肠道微生物群对长期密闭环境中维持和改善心理健康有显著影响。我们的发现代表着在更好地理解肠道微生物群在哺乳动物太空飞行期间心理健康中的作用方面迈出了关键一步，并为未来努力开发基于微生物组的对策提供了基础，以减轻未来人类在月球或火星上进行长期太空飞行时对航天员心理健康的风险。本研究还为未来益生菌在神经精神疾病治疗中的应用提供了重要参考。
Zotero 插件
