Project description
Can gut bacteria influence our mood?
Emerging evidence suggests that gut microbiota communicate with the brain through various mechanisms including the production of short-chain fatty acids. Apart from regulating inflammation, this microbiota–gut–brain axis has raised the question whether it may also influence feelings and emotion-based responses. The EU-funded MoodBugs project proposes to investigate the association between specific microbiota profiles and mental health. By combining population-based and experimental mechanistic studies on healthy humans, researchers will elucidate how microbiota composition and function impacts stress and fear. MoodBugs will unveil the neural mechanisms underlying this association, with important consequences for mental health.
Objective
Do our gut microbes influence our emotions? This sounded far-fetched a decade ago, but rodent research has shown that the microbial ecosystem in the gut (the gut microbiota) causally impacts affective processes. The underlying microbiota-gut-brain signalling mechanisms include the capacity of the microbiota to produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) from dietary fiber and to regulate inflammation.
These rodent findings have great potential to identify new modifiable players in the (patho)physiology of affective processes and disorders, which is urgently needed given the stalled revolution in affective science, but human translation is needed to fulfill this potential.
MoodBugs aims to fill this gap by investigating the relationship between the gut microbiota and stress sensitivity and fear learning, two affective endophenotypes, and the microbiota-gut-brain (SCFA, inflammation) and neur(ochemic)al mechanisms underlying it, in an interdisciplinary hypothesis-driven fashion.
In a population-based study, my team showed a cross-sectional association beteen a specific microbiota profile (B2 enterotype) and mental well-being. To test directionality of this association, I propose a longitudinal and mechanistic population-based study[WP1]. To test causality, I will study the effect of depleting the gut microbiota using an antibiotic intervention on fear learning and its brain basis[WP2].
In a placebo-controlled trial, I showed that SCFA administration (1 week) attenuates the cortisol response to psychosocial stress. To test for whom and how SCFA work, I will investigate microbiota composition as a predictor of response to SCFA, and gene expression in affective circuits as the neural mechanism mediating their effect[WP3]. I will induce systemic inflammation to test its causal effect on stress and fear, and on neuroinflammation in the underlying neural circuitry as hypothesized mediator. I will also test the potential of SCFA to dampen these inflammation-induced effects[WP4].
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2020-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
3000 LEUVEN
Belgium
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.