Gut-Brain Axis Panel Session – ‘The microbiota–gut–brain axis: pathways to better brain health. Perspectives on what we know, what we need to investigate and how to put knowledge into practice’

Abstract
Understanding the impact of the microbiota on the gut brain axis is key to exploring prophylactic or therapeutic approaches. The complexity and interindividual diversity of the gut microbiota, the impact of environment, diet, drugs and stresses, make it difficult to manage or manipulate the microbiota. Learnings from animal models, especially humanised rodent models, from 3D brain and gut organoids or advanced co-culture systems, can help understand  the complex interactions between the host and his/her microbiota.

New sophisticated diagnostic tools applied in humans allow to not only know “who” is there, but also “what are they doing there”. When applied on a large number of people, healthy and diseased, accumulated data will feed artificial intelligence algorithms, permitting to identify high-risk patients at an early stage, determine imbalances, whether microbiological, immunological, endocrinological or metabolic in nature, and  suggest possible prophylactic interventions to mitigate risks.

Abstract based on Chakrabarti et al., Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (2022) 79:80 ; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-021-04060-w