NICOP - HOW MICROBIOTA INFLUENCES BRAIN ACTIVITY
Abstract
The complex interplay between enteric microbiota and brain activity is the object of increasing attention by the scientific community. This relates to the growing body of observations concerning the wide range of effects gut microbiota exert on brain functions an"d the link between this unexplored communication system and a number of neurological, immune and inflammatory disorders. Our chances"" to understand such connections, and employ this information to design nutritional supplements to influence brain activity, critical""ly relies on our ability to record the activation of the central nervous system during gut microbial activities. Up to now, this was"" unfortunately impossible by means of present technologies (e.g. fMRI, or multi- photon microscopy) due to resolution or field of vi""ew limitations. In this project, we will overcome such limitations by adapting to this purpose one of the latest high- resolution f""unctional whole-brain imaging system: functional Ultrasound. In this way, we will develop the first system able to detect responses"" of the animal brain to inoculation in the gastrointestinal system of any microbial molecular component. Next, we will employ the sy""stem to show, for the first time, how the brain responds to the inoculation of extracts from the Lactobacillus rhamnosus JB-1, which" has been demonstrated to produce strong psychoactive effects on the amygdala and the hippocampus. The results of the this study wil"l enormously accelerate ONR researches aimed at the design of psychoactive microbial-based nutritional supplements, since our techno""logy will provide the direct link between the presence of a specific molecular agent, and hence a subset of bacterial strains, and t""he modulation of a brain area, involved, e.g., in stress management, fear or attention/arousal. The outcome of this study will be th""e first imaging system to allow direct microbiota-brain interaction study, and at least one high-profile paper on an international p"eer-reviewed journal to present our results.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2017
- Source ID
- N629091712089
Entities
People
- Federico Esposti
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- San Raffaele Hospital
- United States Navy