New research from Martin Blaser, a microbiologist and infectious disease expert at Rutgers University, and his colleagues reveals that changes to the gut-brain axis from exposure to antibiotics early in life potentially play a role in brain development.
In recent work published in iScience, Blaser and his team showed that low doses of penicillin led to substantial changes to the intestinal microbiota in newborn mice, as well as gene expression changes in two key brain areas affecting pathways underlying neurodevelopment.
Many years ago, Blaser worked at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During his time there, he learned that in the United States, most antibiotics are used not in humans, but in farm animals. Low doses of antibiotics helped animals, including cows, pigs, sheep, and chickens, grow bigger, faster. Then about 20 years ago, as a researcher, Blaser was speaking with a trainee when a lightbulb went off ...
