Antidepressant treatment with fluoxetine during pregnancy and lactation modulates the gut microbiome and metabolome in a rat model relevant to depression

Funding Information: JDAO was supported by the European Union?s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sk?odowska Curie Individual Fellowship under Grant 660152-DEPREG; and a NARSAD young investigator grant under Grant 25206. ASR was supported by a scholarship awarded by the Fulbright Center The Netherlands. TLB was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health under Grant numbers P50-MH099910, MH 104184, MH 091258, MH 087597, MH 073030, and MH 108286. EJ was supported by the National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award F32 under Grant MH 109298. We thank Judith Swart, Wanda Douwenga and Christa Reitzema-Klein for their assistance with the early life stress procedure, drug administration and sample collection. Publisher Copyright: © 2020, © 2020 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

From gut dysbiosis to altered brain function and mental illness: mechanisms and pathways

The human body hosts an enormous abundance and diversity of microbes, which perform a range of essential and beneficial functions. Our appreciation of the importance of these microbial communities to many aspects of human physiology has grown dramatically in recent years. We know, for example, that animals raised in a germ-free environment exhibit substantially altered immune and metabolic function, while the disruption of commensal microbiota in humans is associated with the development of a growing number of diseases. Evidence is now emerging that, through interactions with the gut-brain axis, the bidirectional communication system between the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract, the gut microbiome can also influence neural development, cognition and behaviour, with recent evidence that changes in behaviour alter gut microbiota composition, while modifications of the microbiome can induce depressive-like behaviours. Although an association between enteropathy and certain psychiatric conditions has long been recognized, it now appears that gut microbes represent direct mediators of psychopathology. Here, we examine roles of gut microbiome in shaping brain development and neurological function, and the mechanisms by which it can contribute to mental illness. Further, we discuss how the insight provided by this new and exciting field of research can inform care and provide a basis for the design of novel, microbiota-targeted, therapies.GB Rogers, DJ Keating, RL Young, M-L Wong, J Licinio, and S Wesseling

A novel role for maternal stress and microbial transmission in early life programming and neurodevelopment

Perturbations in the prenatal and early life environment can contribute to the development of offspring stress dysregulation, a pervasive symptom in neuropsychiatric disease. Interestingly, the vertical transmission of maternal microbes to offspring and the subsequent bacterial colonization of the neonatal gut overlap with a critical period of brain development. Therefore, environmental factors such as maternal stress that are able to alter microbial populations and their transmission can thereby shape offspring neurodevelopment. As the neonatal gastrointestinal tract is primarily inoculated at parturition through the ingestion of maternal vaginal microflora, disruption in the vaginal ecosystem may have important implications for offspring neurodevelopment and disease risk. Here, we discuss alterations that occur in the vaginal microbiome following maternal insult and the subsequent effects on bacterial assembly of the neonate gut, the production of neuromodulatory metabolites, and the developmental course of stress regulation