Editorial: The Promise of Psychiatric Translational Research: Exploring How the Gut Can Influence Brain Development

How the gastrointestinal (GI) tract can influence the development and functioning of the central nervous system is one of the hottest translational research topics today. In animal studies, GI infections have been linked to enteric inflammation, disrupted intestinal permeability, and changes in diversity in the gut microbiome as well as brain dysfunction.1 In humans, infectious gastroenteritis has been associated with modified composition of the gut microbiome and systemic inflammation.2 Although gastroenteritis has not been causally linked to dysregulation of the brain in humans, it has been associated with later chronic GI conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, which is often accompanied by anxiety and depression.2-4 In other human studies, microbiome dysbiosis has been associated with significantly increased the risk for later systemic inflammation and brain dysfunction manifested as changes in emotions, behaviors, pain perception, and cognitions.5,6 Most studies investigating these relationships have focused on adult cohorts and are often cross-sectional in design nature. The study by Parent et al.7 is the first longitudinal study to evaluate whether repeated episodes of gastroenteritis during early childhood predicts behavioral problems in later childhood and mental illness during adolescence. In addition, it has an exploratory mechanistic objective: whether systemic inflammation in later childhood and adolescence moderates this brain-gut relationship.