Abstract
Alcohol use disorders (AUD) is characterized by persistent or intermittent alcohol cravings and compulsive drinking. The functional changes in the central nervous system (CNS) after alcohol consumption are alcohol-associated cognitive impairment and mood disorders, which are major health issues reported in AUDs. Studies have shown that transferring the intestinal microbiota from AUDs patients to germ-free animals causes learning and memory dysfunction, depression and anxiety-like behavior, indicating the vital role of intestinal microbiota in development of neuropsychiatric disorders in AUD. Intestinal flora composition of AUD patients are significantly different from normal people, suggesting that intestinal flora imbalance orchestrate the development of neuropsychiatric disorders in AUD. Studies suggests that gut microbiome links bidirectional signaling network of the enteric nervous system (ENS) to central nervous system (CNS), forming gut-microbe-brain axis (brain-gut axis). In this review, we discussed pathogenesis and possible treatment of AUD-induced cognitive deficits, anxiety, and depression disorders. Further, we described the mechanism of intestinal flora imbalance and dysfunction of hippocampus-amygdala-frontal cortex (gut-limbic circuit system dysfunction). Therefore, we postulate therapeutic interventions of gut-brain axis as novel strategies for treatment of AUD-induced neuropsychiatric disorders.
Highlights
Alcohol use disorders (AUD) is characterized by persistent or intermittent alcohol cravings and compulsive drinking
Intestinal flora composition of AUD patients are significantly different from normal people, suggesting that intestinal flora imbalance orchestrate the development of neuropsychiatric disorders in AUD
Germ-free BALB/c mice colonized with the microbiota of Swiss Webster mice showed reduction in anxiety-like behavior and similar phenotype to the behavior of Swiss Webster mice separated into two groups, one of the groups was transplanted with fecal microbiota from the patients with alcoholism and marked as FMT-Alc, while other group transplanted with the fecal microbiota from the alcohol-free adults is marked as FMT-Con (Zhao et al, 2020)
Summary
Alcohol use disorders (AUD) is characterized by persistent or intermittent alcohol cravings and compulsive drinking. The functional changes in the central nervous system (CNS) after alcohol consumption are alcohol-associated cognitive impairment and mood disorders, which are major health issues reported in AUDs. Studies have shown that transferring the intestinal microbiota from AUDs patients to germ-free animals causes learning and memory dysfunction, depression and anxiety-like behavior, indicating the vital role of intestinal microbiota in development of neuropsychiatric disorders in AUD. Long-term alcoholism and withdrawal in AUD patients cause cognitive impairment and emotional changes, which are manifested as deficits in acquisition, consolidation or retrieval of memory, depression, and anxiety (Stavro et al, 2013).
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