Tuning the Brain-Gut Axis in Health and Disease

Abstract

Recent breakthroughs in gut microbiome-derived technologies and therapies, coupled with the lack of invasiveness associated with them, provide attractive routes of biomarker and therapeutic development. Alongside such breakthroughs, an ever-growing body of literature indicates a strong connection between brain activity and microbial populations in the gut. The paucity of effective psychiatric therapies makes the gut microbiota/brain connection a particularly enticing field. This article reviews some of the mechanisms of connection between the gut and the brain, their potential relationship to psychiatric disorders, and the therapeutic potential that arises from them.