Associations Between Disordered Microbial Metabolites and Changes of Neurotransmitters in Depressed Mice

作者：Jing Xie, Ying Wang, Qi Zhong, Shunjie Bai, Chanjuan Zhou, Tian Tian, Jianjun Chen · 发表于：Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.3389/fcimb.2022.906303 · 被引用次数：35 · 研究领域：Gut microbiota and health、Tryptophan and brain disorders、Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies

Backgrounds Many pieces of evidence demonstrated that there were close relationships between gut microbiota and depression. However, the specific molecular mechanisms were still unknown. Here, using targeted metabolomics, this study was conducted to explore the relationships between microbial metabolites in feces and neurotransmitters in prefrontal cortex of depressed mice. Methods Chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) model of depression was built in this study. Targeted liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis was used to detect the microbial metabolites in feces and neurotransmitters in prefrontal cortex of mice. Both univariate and multivariate statistical analyses were applied to identify the differential microbial metabolites and neurotransmitters and explore relationships between them. Results Ninety-eight differential microbial metabolites (mainly belonged to amino acids, fatty acids, and bile acids) and 11 differential neurotransmitters (belonged to tryptophan pathway, GABAergic pathway, and catecholaminergic pathway) were identified. Five affected amino acid–related metabolic pathways were found in depressed mice. The 19 differential microbial metabolites and 10 differential neurotransmitters were found to be significantly correlated with depressive-like behaviors. The two differential neurotransmitters (tyrosine and glutamate) and differential microbial metabolites belonged to amino acids had greater contributions to the overall correlations between micr...