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Review
. 2023 Jul 23;15(14):3258.
doi: 10.3390/nu15143258.

The Role of Gut Microbiota in Anxiety, Depression, and Other Mental Disorders as Well as the Protective Effects of Dietary Components

Ruo-Gu Xiong  1 , Jiahui Li  2 , Jin Cheng  1 , Dan-Dan Zhou  1 , Si-Xia Wu  1 , Si-Yu Huang  1 , Adila Saimaiti  1 , Zhi-Jun Yang  1 , Ren-You Gan  3 , Hua-Bin Li  1
Affiliations
Review

The Role of Gut Microbiota in Anxiety, Depression, and Other Mental Disorders as Well as the Protective Effects of Dietary Components

Ruo-Gu Xiong et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

The number of individuals experiencing mental disorders (e.g., anxiety and depression) has significantly risen in recent years. Therefore, it is essential to seek prevention and treatment strategies for mental disorders. Several gut microbiota, especially Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, are demonstrated to affect mental health through microbiota-gut-brain axis, and the gut microbiota dysbiosis can be related to mental disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders. On the other hand, dietary components, including probiotics (e.g., Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium), prebiotics (e.g., dietary fiber and alpha-lactalbumin), synbiotics, postbiotics (e.g., short-chain fatty acids), dairy products, spices (e.g., Zanthoxylum bungeanum, curcumin, and capsaicin), fruits, vegetables, medicinal herbs, and so on, could exert protective effects against mental disorders by enhancing beneficial gut microbiota while suppressing harmful ones. In this paper, the mental disorder-associated gut microbiota are summarized. In addition, the protective effects of dietary components on mental health through targeting the gut microbiota are discussed. This paper can be helpful to develop some dietary natural products into pharmaceuticals and functional foods to prevent and treat mental disorders.

Keywords: anxiety; depression; gut microbiota; natural products; probiotics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The relationships of gut microbiota and mental disorders. ↑ represents positive association, ↓ represents negative association. ASD, autism spectrum disorder.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The effects of natural products on mental disorders. ↑ represents increase, ↓ represents decrease.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The effects and mechanisms of natural dietary products on mental disorders by targeting gut microbiota. Abbreviations: ACTH, adrenocorticotropic hormone; BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor; CORT, cortisol; CRF, corticotropin releasing factor; DA, dopamine; GABA, glutamate–glutamine–gamma-aminobutyric acid; HPA, hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal; SCFAs, short-chain fatty acids; TrkB, tyrosine kinase receptor B; TNF-α, tumor necrosis factor alpha; and 5-HT, 5-hydroxytryptamine.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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