Antibiotic treatment — which depletes gut microbes — drastically changes the parts of a rat’s brain that are activated during opioid addiction and withdrawal.

«It turned out I had malaria and needed a different treatment,» Simpson said. «But by then the antibiotics had messed with my stomach and I felt more anxious than I had before.»

Antibiotics kill disease-causing bacteria, but they also destroy many of the beneficial bacteria living in our guts, a side effect that has been linked to a number of long-term health issues. That experience was the impetus for Simpson’s interest in microbiome science and the gut-brain axis — studies of the many ways that bacteria, viruses and other microbes living in our bodies influence our physical and mental well-being.

As a now-healthy graduate student, Simpson first worked on techniques to visualize molecules in the brain. But she couldn’t shake her interest in the gut microbiome and its connections to the brain.

«So one day, Sierra just walks into my lab and asks me if I’d be interested in exploring potential connections between the gut microbiome and what my lab typically studies — drug abuse and addiction,» said Olivier George, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at University of California San Diego School of Medicine. «I was reluctant at first. After all, I figured if there was something there, someone would’ve discovered it by now. But we decided to give it a try.»

In a study published April 27, 2020 in eNeuro, Simpson, George and team discovered that the gut microbiome influences the pattern of activation in a rat’s brain during opioid addiction and withdrawal.

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Materials provided by University of California — San Diego. Original written by Heather Buschman, PhD. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.