Brain-Gut Microbiota Interactions in Obesity

Dear Colleagues,

Obesity rates have been steadily rising in the US, and with their complications have become one of the most prevalent and most expensive health problems. A growing body of evidence supports the concept of bidirectional signaling between the brain, the gut microbiome, and the immune system: Top-down signaling from the brain influences many gastrointestinal processes, or bottom-up signaling from the gut microbiota can alter neural signatures in the brain, induce systemic immune activation by interacting with gut-based immune cells, or get direct access to brain circuits by achieving sufficient systemic concentrations to reach nuclei within the hypothalamus, or cross the blood-brain barrier. Thus alterations within the brain-gut microbiome-immune axis may reveal novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of obesity. However, it is ultimately the complex balance between gut-derived satiety mechanisms, gut microbial metabolites, inflammatory mediators, and the motivational drive generated by the central reward system and prefrontal cortical inhibitory mechanisms that determines the dysregulated brain-gut microbiome interactions in obesity. It is also this imbalance within this brain-gut microbiome system that leads to increased alterations in maladaptive ingestive behaviors and an increased propensity towards or maintenance of obesity. Growing knowledge about this systems biological model of brain gut microbiome interactions provides novel treatment targets and approaches, either at the brain or gut level, for obesity.

The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together researchers, academics, clinicians, nutritionists, neuroscientists, microbiologists, and other health professionals, and experts in the fields of obesity and metabolism to increase our knowledge of the underlying physiology of obesity based on alterations in the brain-gut microbiome axis and to increase evidence for obesity-related treatments targeted at any level of the axis.

Dr. Arpana Gupta
Dr. Jonathan Jacobs
Guest Editors

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