“Neurobiotic sense,” says Brain when you have had enough

Summary: scientists have discovered a “neurobiotic sense”, a recently identified system where the intestine sends real -time signals of microbes to the brain to help regulate appetite. Specialized cells called neuropods in the colon detect a bacterial protein, scourge, and point to the brain through the vagus nerve to suppress feeding.

The mice that lack the recipient of this signal continued to eat and increased weight, highlighting the role of the road in appetite control. This advance suggests that our intestinal microbes can directly influence behavior and open pathways to study diet, obesity and mood disorders.

Key facts:

Neuropods detect intestinal microbes and point to the brain to regulate appetite. Bacterial protein scourge triggers this intestinal communication in real time. The discussion of the road alters food behavior and weight gain.

Source: Duke University

In an advance that reinvents the way in which the intestine and brain communicate, researchers have discovered what they call a “neurobiotic sense”, a recently identified system that allows the brain to respond in real time to the signs of microbes that live in our intestine.

The new research, directed by the neuroscientists of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Duke, Diego Bohórquez, PHD, and M. Maya Kaelberer, PHD, and published in Nature, focuses on Neuroopods, small sensor cells that cover the epithelium of the colon. These cells detect a common microbial protein and send fast messages to the brain that help curb appetite.

But this is just the beginning. The team believes that this neurobiotic sense can be a broader platform to understand how the intestine detects microbes, influencing everything, from eating habits to mood, and even how the brain could shape the microbiome in return.

“We were curious to know if the body could detect microbial patterns in real time and not only as an immune or inflammatory response, but as a neuronal response that guides real -time behavior,” said Bohórquez, professor of medicine and neurobiology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Duke and main author of the study.

The key player is flageline, an ancient protein found in the bacterial scourges, a structure similar to the tail that bacteria use to swim. When we eat, some intestinal bacteria release scourge. Neuropods detect it, with the help of a receiver called TLR5, and shoot a message through the vagus nerve, an important communication line of communication between the intestine and the brain.

The team, supported by the National Health Institutes, proposed a bold idea: that the bacterial scourge in the colon could trigger neuropods to send a sign of suppression of appetite to the brain, a direct microbial influence on behavior.

The researchers tried this to fasting mice during the night, then giving them a small dose of scourge directly to the colon. Those mice ate less.

When the researchers tried the same experiment in mice missing the TLR5 receiver, nothing changed. The mice kept eating and climbing weight, a clue that the road helps regulate appetite.

The findings suggest that Flallin sends a sign of “we have had enough” through TLR5, which allows the intestine to tell the brain that it is time to stop eating. Without that receiver, the message is not passed.

The discovery was guided by the authors of the main study Winston Liu, MD, PHD, Emily Alway, both graduated students of the Medical Scientists Training Program and Postdoctoral Companion Naama Reicher, Ph.D.

Their experiments reveal that the interruption of the path altered eating habits in mice pointed to a deeper link between intestinal microbes and behavior.

“Looking towards the future, I think this work will be especially useful for the broader scientific community to explain how our behavior is influenced by microbes,” said Bohórquez.

“A next clear step is to investigate how specific diets change the microbial landscape in the intestine. That could be a key piece of puzzle in conditions such as obesity or psychiatric disorders.”

On this news of neuroscience and microbioma research

Author: Fedor Kossakovski
Source: Duke University
Contact: Fedor Kossakovski – Duke University
Image: The image is accredited to Neuroscience News

Original research: open access.
“An intestinal sense for a microbial pattern regulates food” by Diego Bohórquez et al. Nature

Abstract

An intestinal sense for a microbial pattern regulates food

To coexist with its resident microorganisms, the host must have the sense of adjusting their behavior in response to them. In the intestine, a sense of transduced nutrients to the brain through neuroepithelial circuits guide appetitive options.

However, it remains a sense that allows the guest to respond in real time to the stimuli that arise from resident intestinal microorganisms.

Here we show that in the mouse colon, the ubiquitous scourge of the microbial pattern, a unifying characteristic between Phyla, stimulates the 5 (TLR5) receptor in the cells of the colonic neuropods with yy peptides (Pyy).

This stimulation leads to the release of Pyy in nodosa vagal npy2r neurons to regulate food. Mice that lack TLR5 in these cells eat more and get more weight than controls. We discover that Flallin does not act on the nerve directly.

Instead, flagelin stimulates the cells of colon light neuropods to reduce feeding through a sensory neuronal circuit of the intestinal brain. In addition, scourge reduces independent feeding of immune responses, metabolic changes or the presence of intestinal microbiota.

This sense allows the guest to adjust their behavior in response to a molecular pattern of its resident microorganisms.

We call this sense in the biota and brain interface the neurobiotic sense.