Analysis methods for the gut microbiome in neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders

For a long time, the central nervous system was believed to be the only regulator of cognitive functions. However, accumulating evidence suggests that the composition of the microbiome is strongly associated with brain functions and diseases. Indeed, the gut microbiome is involved in neuropsychiatric diseases (e.g., depression, autism spectrum disorder, and anxiety) and neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease). In this review, we provide an overview of the link between the gut micro-biome and neuropsychiatric or neurodegenerative disorders. We also introduce analytical methods used to assess the connection between the gut microbiome and the brain. The limitations of the methods used at pre-sent are also discussed. The accurate translation of the microbiome information to brain disorder could pro-mote better understanding of neuronal diseases and aid in finding alternative and novel therapies.(c) 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Research Network of Computational and Structural Bio-technology. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The gut microbiome is strongly associated with neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, and understanding this connection could lead to alternative therapies for neuronal diseases.