From Alpha Diversity to Zzz: Interactions among sleep, the brain, and gut microbiota in the first year of life

S. F. Schoch, J. L. Castro-Mejía, L. Krych, B. Leng, W. Kot, M. Kohler, R. Huber, G. Rogler, L. Biedermann, J. C. Walser, D. S. Nielsen, S. Kurth*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)
33 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Sleep disorders have been linked to alterations of gut microbiota composition in adult humans and animal models, but it is unclear how this link develops. With longitudinal assessments in 162 healthy infants, we present a so far unrecognized sleep-brain-gut interrelationship. First, we report a link between sleep habits and gut microbiota: daytime sleep is associated with bacterial diversity, and nighttime sleep fragmentation and variability are linked with bacterial maturity and enterotype. Second, we demonstrate a sleep-brain-gut link: bacterial diversity and enterotype are associated with sleep neurophysiology. Third, we show that the sleep-brain-gut link is relevant in development: sleep habits and bacterial markers predict behavioral-developmental outcomes. Our results demonstrate the dynamic interplay between sleep, gut microbiota, and the maturation of brain and behavior during infancy, which aligns with the newly emerging concept of a sleep-brain-gut axis. Importantly, sleep and gut microbiota represent promising health targets since both can be modified non-invasively. As many adult diseases root in early childhood, leveraging protective factors of adequate sleep and age-appropriate gut microbiota in infancy could constitute a health promoting factor across the entire human lifespan.

Original languageEnglish
Article number102208
JournalProgress in Neurobiology
Volume209
Number of pages11
ISSN0301-0082
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors declare no conflict of interest. M.K. declares to have received advisory fees from Bayer, GSK, Novartis, Astra Zeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, OM Pharma and Mundipharma outside the submitted work. M.K. is also a board member of Deep Breath Intelligence (DBI), a company that specializes in and provides services in exhaled breath analysis. R.H. is a partner of Tosoo AG, a company developing wearables for sleep electrophysiology monitoring and stimulation. G.R. has consulted for Abbvie, Augurix, BMS, Boehringer, Calypso, Celgene, FALK, Ferring, Fisher, Genentech, Gilead, Janssen, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, Phadia, Roche, UCB, Takeda, Tillots, Vifor, Vital Solutions and Zeller, has received speaker's honoraria from Astra Zeneca, Abbvie, FALK, Janssen, MSD, Pfizer, Phadia, Takeda, Tillots, UCB, Vifor and Zeller and has received grant support from Abbvie, Ardeypharm, Augurix, Calypso, FALK, Flamentera, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Takeda, Tillots, UCB and Zeller. B.L. is now an employee of NexStrain producing live biotherapeutic.

Funding Information:
This research was funded by the University of Zurich (Clinical Research Priority Program “Sleep and Health”, Forschungskredit FK-18-047, Faculty of Medicine), the Swiss National Science Foundation ( PCEFP1-181279 , P0ZHP1-178697 ), Foundation for Research in Science and the Humanities ( STWF-17-008 ), and the Olga Mayenfisch Stiftung .

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)

Keywords

  • Actigraphy
  • EEG
  • Gut-brain axis
  • Infancy
  • Maturation

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