Posts by:
Gabriella True

Psychobiotics: the Influence of Gut Microbiota on the Gut-Brain Axis in Neurological Disorders

Oroojzadeh, P., Bostanabad, S.Y. & Lotfi, H. Psychobiotics: the Influence of Gut Microbiota on the Gut-Brain Axis in Neurological Disorders. J Mol Neurosci (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-022-02053-3

  • Psychobiotics are a probiotic strain capable to affect the gut-brain axis.
  • Finding suggests that Psychobiotics can efficiently alleviate the symptoms of several CNS disorders such as autism spectrum disorders, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, insomnia, depression, diabetic neuropathy, and anorexia nervosa.
  • It can be concluded that functional foods containing psychotropic strains can help to improve mental health.
Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratios as inflammatory biomarkers in psychiatric patients

T Bhikram, P Sandor, Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratios as inflammatory biomarkers in psychiatric patients, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, Volume 105, 2022, Pages 237-246, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2022.07.006.

Conclusion: The consistent findings of elevated NLR across the reviewed psychiatric disorders suggest that abnormal NLR is not specific to any one disorder but may reflect a pathological brain process that leads to brain dysfunction. These findings support hypotheses of neuroinflammation being important to the etiology of psychiatric disorders. More research is needed to further elucidate the relationship between specific diagnostic and behavioural constructs and NLR. Future work is also needed to determine the specific neuroinflammatory mechanisms that give rise to specific disorders.

A Case of Steroid-Responsive Severe Pneumonia Following a Recent COVID-19 Infection in a Patient With Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated With Streptococcal Infection

Pourshahid S, Khademolhosseini S, Giri B, et al. (July 12, 2022) A Case of Steroid-Responsive Severe Pneumonia Following a Recent COVID-19 Infection in a Patient With Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated With Streptococcal Infection. Cureus 14(7): e26785. doi:10.7759/cureus.26785

“Drug-induced pneumonitis was a possibility as well; however, she was only taking rituximab and cetirizine. Rituximab is a potential agent for the treatment of pneumonitis refractory to conventional treatments [25]. Although there are a few reported cases of rituximab-induced pneumonitis [26], the three-month delay after the last injection of rituximab and rapid progression in a few days are not consistent with drug-induced pneumonitis.

It is conceivable that her recent COVID-19 infection may have activated an exaggerated inflammatory response as the immunosuppression related to rituximab was subsiding. The rapidly progressing pulmonary consolidations and worsening respiratory symptoms under these circumstances should prompt the clinician to consider steroid-responsive-pneumonia like post-COVID OP, MISA, and IRIS-like reactions. Rapid institution of high-dose steroids seems to be the key to treatment. Whether her history of PANDAS may have further impacted her immune system, making her more prone to this exaggerated response is unclear.”