Abstract
Food addiction (FA) is characterized by behavioral and neurochemical changes linked to loss of food intake control. Gut microbiota may influence appetite and food intake via endocrine and neural routes. The gut microbiota is known to impact homeostatic energy mechanisms, but its role in regulating the reward system is less certain. We show that the administration of Bacteroides uniformis CECT 7771 (B. uniformis) in a rat FA model impacts on the brain reward response, ameliorating binge eating and decreasing anxiety-like behavior. These effects are mediated, at least in part, by changes in the levels of dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline in the nucleus accumbens and in the expression of dopamine D1 and D2 receptors in the prefrontal cortex and intestine. B. uniformis reverses the fasting-induced microbiota changes and increases the abundance of species linked to healthy metabolotypes. Our data indicate that microbiota-based interventions might help to control compulsive overeating by modulating the reward response.
Highlights
Food addiction (FA) has been characterized by behavioral and brain alterations leading to a loss of control of food intake [1]
Our findings support the idea that the gut microbiota is involved in the loss of food control intake and especially in binge eating (BE), which often occurs in people who are obese and at increased risk for mental eating disorders such as FA-like behavior [1, 46, 47]
We found that the oral administration of a commensal bacterium, B. uniformis, reduces caloric intake during BE episodes and restores the anxiety-like behavior that was altered by the intermittent fasting (IF) protocol
Summary
Food addiction (FA) has been characterized by behavioral and brain alterations leading to a loss of control of food intake [1]. This concept became popular in the second half of the twentieth century when obesity first emerged as a major public health concern. The FA concept is grounded on emerging evidence that the reward mechanisms that regulate both substance abuse/addiction and overeating palatable foods are essentially the same, the activation of the reward circuitry, including the mesolimbic dopamine pathways, opioids, and cannabinoids [7,8,9,10]. FA differs from drug addiction in that food is essential for life and there is no chemical withdrawal syndrome [11], is not officially recognized as a disease in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) yet [12]
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