The gut microbiota-immune-brain axis: Therapeutic implications

Abstract

The microbiota-gut-brain axis has major implications for human health including gastrointestinal physiology, brain function, and behavior. The immune system represents a key pathway of communication along this axis with the microbiome implicated in neuroinflammation in health and disease. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms as to how the gut microbiota interacts with the brain, focusing on innate and adaptive immunity that are often disrupted in gut-brain axis disorders. We also consider the implications of these observations and how they can be advanced by interdisciplinary research. Leveraging an increased understanding of how these interactions regulate immunity has the potential to usher in a new era of precision neuropsychiatric clinical interventions for psychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurological disorders.

Keywords: adaptive immunity; gut microbiota; innate immunity; microbiome-gut-immune-brain axis.