Brain diseases are among the major disorders influencing human health. In general, brain diseases include diseases that might be classified as neurological or psychiatric, for example, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, depression, autism, and addiction. Patients with these types of diseases are mainly characterized by abnormal thinking patterns, cognition, emotional states, and behavior. To date, much of the research on these diseases has used animal models. Despite some encouraging findings, the underlying pathophysiology of these diseases is still relatively unclear. In particular, whether some findings are causal, accompanying, or simply irrelevant to the occurrence of brain diseases has great significance for the development of more effective treatments.

In this respect, there is a recognized need for more updated perspectives from preclinical investigations in animal models. It is worth mentioning that since it was first reported in 2011, the reduction of anxiety-like behavior and the changes of neurochemicals in the brain were observed in mice with the absence of gut microbes, resulting in a surge of interest in the role of the gut microbiota in health. And the new concept of microbiota-gut-brain (MGB) axis was formally put forward in 2012, which revealed the ways in which peripheral systems and organs affect the brain, and showed that the periphery and the center can be closely linked through the carriers of gut microbiota. After more than a decade of development, animal models provide an important vehicle for exploring the role of gut microbiota in the pathology of brain diseases, potential therapeutic approaches and diagnostic tools. However, extending these findings to the diagnosis and treatment of human brain diseases still faces great challenges.

In light of this, the purpose of this special issue is to invite the scientific community to submit original research papers, reviews, pertaining to the recent advances in the field of animal models, gut microbiota, and brain diseases. In addition to appealing to a broad audience, contributions should address challenging scientific issues, provide mechanistic hypotheses, offer insight into how the field is evolving or introduce novel experimental approaches to solving problems.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Microbiota dysbiosis in different brain diseases
• The role of the gut microbiota in brain diseases prevention and therapy
• Pre-clinical study of pharmacological or non-pharmacological therapies that target gut microbes to improve brain diseases
• Strategies and methods for studying the relationship between gut microbiota and the brain diseases
• Intervention strategies targeting the gut microbiota and their subsequent translation into clinical trials

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Frontiers in Microbiology

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