The interplay between prenatal health behaviours, neurodevelopmental diagnoses and alterations in the gut microbiome: an umbrella review

Dennis Golm*, Alexandra Law, David Cleary

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to conference (unpublished)Posterpeer-review

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Abstract

Alterations to the gut microbiome have been associated with cognitive development and psychopathology- possibly through a bivariate communication pathway between the gut and the brain.

As transmission of maternal gut microbiota to the infant occurs during birth, prenatal health behaviours such as smoking may adversely affect the infant’s gut microbiome, and subsequently their developmental trajectory.

Recently, the gut microbiome has been hypothesised to be altered in people with neurodevelopmental diagnoses (NDDs) such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder or autism. Given the high heritability of NDDs, these alterations may not necessarily be causal risk factors, but may modulate neurodevelopmental or gastrointestinal symptoms. The latter of which has shown to be increased in people with NDDs.

We conducted three umbrella systematic reviews (PROSPERO: CFR42021292394) on the association between:

Prenatal health behaviours and NDDs.
Prenatal health behaviours and infant gut microbiome composition.
NDDs and gut microbiome composition.
We further cross-referenced results to examine the evidence for a developmental framework in which maternal prenatal health behaviours impact neurodevelopmental symptoms via alterations to the infant gut microbiome. We included (i) 44, (ii) 4 and (iii) 17 systematic reviews into the umbrella review.

While robust associations between prenatal health behaviours and NDDs have been identified, little work has been conducted on the impact of infant gut microbiota. Most systematic reviews on NDDs and gut microbiome alterations focused on autism and support differences between autistic and non-autistic populations. Results however are heterogeneous with few replicated results across studies. Some emerging evidence supports the developmental framework.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages1
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2023
Event56th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology - Crowne Plaza Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
Duration: 26 Jul 202328 Jul 2023
https://isdp.org/current/

Conference

Conference56th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology
Abbreviated titleISDP 2023
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityUtrecht
Period26/07/2328/07/23
Internet address

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