gut microbiome

The researchers then tested how this change in the gut microbiome affected the mice's
response to cocaine. Psychostimulants typically cause animals to move more in their cages, but
the team expected mice infected with pathogenic bacteria to move less compared to uninfected
mice exposed to cocaine. did. A medical microbiologist studying the gut-brain axis at the
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, School of Public Health. Surprisingly, cocaine-
exposed infected mice were more active than cocaine-exposed uninfected controls.

See Bacterial Infected Viruses in the Gut Microbiota Relevant to Cognition. I wondered if it was
due to the inflammation it causes. After a series of experiments involving inducing inflammation
in the absence of microbes, they rejected the latter hypothesis. We then focused on studies of
the animal gut metabolome and found that the glycine pathway was downregulated in mice
exposed to cocaine and infected with C.rodentium or E.coli. Glycine is a neurotransmitter
associated with neuropsychiatric disorders that use these proteobacteria as a nitrogen source.