Nature article: How gut microbes could drive brain disorders, 2021

Andy · Feb 3, 2021

In 2006, soon after she launched her own laboratory, neuroscientist Jane Foster discovered something she felt sure would set her field abuzz. She and her team were working with two groups of mice: one with a healthy selection of microorganisms in their guts, and one that lacked a microbiome. They noticed that the mice without gut bacteria seemed less anxious than their healthy equivalents. When placed in a maze with some open paths and some walled-in ones, they preferred the exposed paths. The bacteria in the gut seemed to be influencing their brain and behaviour.

Foster, at McMaster University in Toronto, Canada, wrote up the study and submitted it for publication. It was rejected. She rewrote it and sent it out again. Rejected. “People didn’t buy it. They thought it was an artefact,” she says. Finally, after three years and seven submissions, she got an acceptance letter1.

John Cryan, a neuroscientist at University College Cork in Ireland, joined the field about the same time as Foster did, and knows exactly how she felt. When he began talking about the connections between bacteria living in the gut and the brain, “I felt very evangelical”, he says. He recalls one Alzheimer’s disease conference at which he presented in 2014. “I’ve never given a talk in a room where there was less interest.”
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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00260-3

Snowdrop · Feb 3, 2021

This seems the more normal way of things with regard to new science and it's acceptance.

Unlike the BPS ideology where every silly idea is met with kudos, gold stars, pats on the back all round. At least as far as I can tell there was zero resistance to their ideas. Which is a story in itself possibly.

There is so much interesting stuff to uncover and discover with regards to how the human body functions. But as always, real science is hard work and not instantly embraced by all ones colleagues.

Forbin · Feb 3, 2021

“And then we asked ourselves, ‘how does this strain that only lives in the gut impact so amazingly a disease which is focused at the brain?’” Elinav says.

The culprits could be bacterial metabolites — small molecules produced by bacteria that can enter the bloodstream and travel around the body. At least half of all small molecules in the blood are “either made by microbes or modulated by microbes”, Elinav says.
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Nature article: How gut microbes could drive brain disorders, 2021

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Nature article: How gut microbes could drive brain disorders, 2021

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