Joan

Luebering

January 29, 2014

Contacts:
Elaine Hsiao ehsiao@caltech.edu 626-395-8980

NEW RESEARCH LINKS BRAIN AND GUT HEALTH

Probiotics may offer treatment for autism and other brain disorders

Science is coming to understand that the health of our brains depends on the health of our
other body systems. In fact, it depends on something most of us dont think of as part of our
bodies at allthe bacteria and other microbes that live in our guts.

A new research study has shown a link between these bacteria and autism spectrum
disorder (ASD). While the research is not yet ready to test in humans, it has been hailed as
groundbreaking and extraordinary. Scientists who reviewed it for the leading microbiology
journal Cell say the discovery may lead to effective treatments for autism and other
neurological disorders.

About 10,000 species of microbes flourish in the healthy human gut. Together, these 100
trillion organisms may outweigh our brains. The microbes were once believed to be
commensalthat is, living in us without causing either harm or goodbut scientists are
now finding that there is something in it for us, too.

More and more were learning that these commensal microbes that make up us have
coevolved to play fundamental roles in normal brain development and function, says
Elaine Hsiao, who led the research team at the California Institute of Technology. They
regulate several complex behaviors like anxiety, learning and memory, appetite and
satiety.

The team studied a strain of mice with ASD-like traits, including anxiety and problems with
communication and social behavior. They found that the mice lacked some bacteria that are
present in the guts of healthy mice. The mice also had defects of the digestive tract that
allowed possibly toxic compounds to leak through the intestinal wall out into the
bloodstream.

By feeding the mice B. fragilis, one of the bacteria found in the gut of healthy humans,
researchers were able to restore gut microbes to the normal balance. Normalizing the
microbes with this treatment corrected the leaky gut problem. Remarkably, it also
substantially improved the ASD-like behaviors of the mice.

As many as 1 in 88 children today suffer from ASD, up from 1 in 150 diagnosed in 2000.
The causes of the disorder arent clearly understood, and there is no medical treatment.

Joan Luebering

Its known that some people who have ASD also suffer from digestive system problems.
Research varies widely in estimating how many are affected (from 9% to 91%), but the
problems appear to correspond to the severity of ASD symptoms. Using probiotics (live
bacteria that are ingested to improve health) to regulate gut microbes, as researchers did
with mice in this study, offers a promising avenue of investigation to treat ASD in humans.

These probiotics are not something you can get in your yogurt or at your nutritional
supplement store, but studying them is part of an emerging body of research into the gut-
brain link. People who suffer from other neurological disorders, such as schizophrenia,
obsessive-compulsive disorder, PTSD, multiple sclerosis, and depression may also benefit
from this type of research.

Scientists dont yet know just how it is that microbes in the gut can affect the brain. The
interaction may happen by way of the vagus nerve (a long nerve that contacts both the gut
lining and the brain stem) or through the bodys immune or endocrine (hormone) systems.

Both the research report and the review were published in the December 19, 2013, issue of
Cell.




Hsiao discusses the human commensal biome at a Caltech TEDx talk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWT_BLVOASI



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