Intestinal permeability, gut-bacterial dysbiosis, and behavioral markers of alcohol-dependence severity
By S. Leclercq, S. Matamoros, Patrice D Cani, A. Neyrinck, F. Jamar, P. Stärkel, K. Windey, V. Tremaroli, F. Bäckhed, K. Verbeke and 2 more. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2014
841 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Significance Alcohol-dependent subjects frequently develop emotional symptoms that contribute to the persistence of alcohol drinking. These subjects are also characterized by gastrointestinal disturbances. In this study, we showed that alcohol-dependent subjects with altered intestinal permeability had also altered gut-microbiota composition and activity and remained with high scores of depression, anxiety, and alcohol craving after a short-term detoxification program. These results are consistent with the existence of a gut–brain axis in alcohol dependence, in which the gut microbiota could alter the gut-barrier function and influence behavior in alcohol dependence. Therefore, this study opens a previously unidentified field of research for the treatment and the management of alcohol dependence, targeting the gut microbiota. Alcohol dependence has traditionally been considered a brain disorder. Alteration in the composition of the gut microbiota has recently been shown to be present in psychiatric disorders, which suggests the possibility of gut-to-brain interactions in the development of alcohol dependence. The aim of the present study was to explore whether changes in gut permeability are linked to gut-microbiota composition and activity in alcohol-dependent subjects. We also investigated whether gut dysfunction is associated with the psychological symptoms of alcohol dependence. Finally, we tested the reversibility of the biological and behavioral parameters after a short-term detoxification program. We found that some, but not all, alcohol-dependent subjects developed gut leakiness, which was associated with higher scores of depression, anxiety, and alcohol craving after 3 wk of abstinence, which may be important psychological factors of relapse. Moreover, subjects with increased gut permeability also had altered composition and activity of the gut microbiota. These results suggest the existence of a gut–brain axis in alcohol dependence, which implicates the gut microbiota as an actor in the gut barrier and in behavioral disorders. Thus, the gut microbiota seems to be a previously unidentified target in the management of alcohol dependence.
Subfields: Biological Psychiatry, Molecular Biology, Physiology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7bd94b0713728394bb6e9b321fec8837486ebb65
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In Biological Psychiatry
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Citations in the corpus
- Inflammation: depression fans the flames and feasts on the heat. (2015, background): “Among alcohol-dependent patients, those with higher depression, anxiety, and craving symptom ratings also had greater gut permeability and gut-bacterial dysbiosis than those with normal gut permeability (56).”
- Breaking down the barriers: the gut microbiome, intestinal permeability and stress-related psychiatric disorders (2015, background): “This study strengthens the hypothesis that the BBB may also be vulnerable to changes in the gut microbiota.”
- GUT MICROBIOTA DYSBIOSIS IS LINKED TO HYPERTENSION (2015, result): “reports that dysbiosis is associated with a decrease of bacterial loads.(35) Previous studies failed to identify differences in the gut microbiota between WKY rats and SHRs,(36) and L-NAME hypertension.”