Lecture 14: Neuropsychiatry and the Gut Microbiota 1 Flashcards
What is the most common neuropsychiatric disease?
schizophrenia
What are the types of symptoms of schizophrenia?
positive (psychosis), cognitive and negative
What are symptoms of autism spectrum disorder?
stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech
highly restricted, fixated interests
hyper- or hypo-reactivity to sensory input
What are examples of neuropsychiatric diseases with gastrointestinal involvement?
parkinson’s disease, ASD and schizophrenia
What is Parkinson’s disease associated with?
persistent constipation or delayed gastric emptying can appear up to 10 years
before motor or cognitive symptoms
one theory is that pathology begins in neurons of GI tract
What is ASD associated with?
up to 90% report GI symptoms ranging from constipation to diarrhoea
What is schizophrenia associated with?
significant evidence of GI inflammatory issues in > 30% of patients
What is evidence of neuropsychiatric diseases being genetic disorders?
twin studies show a high degree of concordance between monozygotic twins
but significant environmental component determines penetrance and severity
What are examples of the environment playing a major role?
brothers with the same ASD producing mutation have markedly different presentations
some individuals with disease producing mutations never show symptoms
What is an essential part of the environment for any animal?
the GI microbiota
Why are the microbiota relevant to neuroscience?
disturbances in the balance of microbes in the gut can cause long term effects on behaviour
several disorders associated with mood are correlated with alterations in gut microbes
What does probiotic bacteria cause altered activity of?
enteric neurons in rodents
What have various studies indicated that ASD symptoms may be related to?
composition of the microbiota
What can stress and anxiety modulate?
the microbiota and vice versa
What can stress/disease of the normal microbiota and CNS lead to?
alterations in behaviour, cognition, emotion, nociception
altered levels of inflammatory cells and / or mediators
intestinal dysbiosis
How many more distinct genes are there in the microbiome than in the human genome?
150x to 300x more distinct genes
diversity has been correlated with health
How many more bacteria are there in the gut than there are cells in the human body?
the gut contains about 10x more bacteria than there are cells in the human body