Potential therapeutic applications of the gut microbiome in obesity: from brain function to body detoxification

Research output: Contribution to journalReviewResearchpeer-review

  • Choi, Beatrice
  • Laurence Daoust
  • Geneviève Pilon
  • André Marette
  • Angelo Tremblay

The prevalence of obesity is rising every year and associated comorbidities such as cardiovascular diseases are among the leading causes of death worldwide. The gut microbiota has recently emerged as a potential target for therapeutic applications to prevent and treat those comorbidities. In this review, we focus on three conditions related to obesity in which the use of gut microbiota modulators could have benefits; mood disorders, eating behaviors, and body detoxification of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). On one hand, modulation of gut-derived signals to the brain in a context of obesity is involved in the development of neuroinflammation and can subsequently alter behaviors. An altered gut microbiome could change these signals and alleviate their consequences. On the other hand, obesity is associated with an increased accumulation of lipophilic contaminants, such as POPs. Targeting the microbiota could help body detoxication by reducing bioavailability, enhancing degradation by bioremediation or their excretion through the enterohepatic circulation. Thus, a supplementation of prebiotics, probiotics, or synbiotics could represent a complementary strategy to current ones, such as medication and lifestyle modifications, to decrease depression, alter eating behaviors, and lower body burden of pollutants considering the actual obesity epidemic our society is facing.

Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational journal of obesity (2005)
Volume44
Issue number9
Pages (from-to)1818-1831
Number of pages14
ISSN0307-0565
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sep 2020
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Brain/physiology, Dietary Supplements, Gastrointestinal Microbiome/physiology, Humans, Obesity/microbiology, Prebiotics, Probiotics/therapeutic use, Synbiotics

ID: 335350725