A Review of Traumatic Brain Injury and the Gut Microbiome: Insights into Novel Mechanisms of Secondary Brain Injury and Promising Targets for Neuroprotection.

Caroline Zhu,Thomas Patterson,Ramesh Grandhi,Susannah Nicholson

doi:10.3390/brainsci8060113

Abstract

The gut microbiome and its role in health and disease have recently been major focus areas of research. In this review, we summarize the different ways in which the gut microbiome interacts with the rest of the body, with focus areas on its relationships with immunity, the brain, and injury. The gut–brain axis, a communication network linking together the central and enteric nervous systems, represents a key bidirectional pathway with feed-forward and feedback mechanisms. The gut microbiota has a central role in this pathway and is significantly altered following injury, leading to a pro-inflammatory state within the central nervous system (CNS). Herein, we examine traumatic brain injury (TBI) in relation to this axis and explore potential interventions, which may serve as targets for improving clinical outcomes and preventing secondary brain injury.

Highlights

Recent estimates of the magnitude of traumatic brain injury (TBI) suggest that each year, approximately 1.7 million people sustain a head injury in the United States [1]
Clinical management of TBI focuses on prevention of secondary injury, but progression can be difficult to follow clinically
Few studies have been conducted that focus on the impact of TBI on the gut microbiome, and the physiologic and clinical implications remain unseen