Gut-Brain Axis in Health and Disease: Dietary Modulation, Metabolic Disorders, Neuroinflammation, and Tumors

The gut–brain axis integrates bidirectional signaling between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system through neural, endocrine, metabolic, and immune pathways. Within this network, diet, host metabolism, and the gut microbiota shape circulating and locally active mediators (e.g., microbial metabolites, enteroendocrine hormones, cytokines) that can influence neuroinflammatory tone and brain function. In parallel, metabolic disorders and chronic inflammation are increasingly recognized as systemic contexts that modify brain resilience and disease trajectories. Brain tumors add further complexity: tumor growth, treatment, and symptom burden intersect with immune remodeling, metabolic reprogramming, and microbiome-linked pathways. Recent advances in multi-omics, high-dimensional immunophenotyping, neuroimaging, and microbiome science now enable more integrated, mechanism-aware analyses across these elements.Our research topic seeks to address the critical translational gaps in gut-brain axis research. We aim to integrate mechanistic, translational, and clinical investigations to delineate how obesity- and diet-associated microbial and metabolic signals modulate intestinal barrier and blood-brain barrier integrity, immune remodeling, and neuroinflammatory circuit function, and to further define how systemic inflammatory states govern these pathways, disease trajectories, and therapeutic responses.Recent technological advances — including longitudinal cohort designs, standardized dietary assessment tools, metagenomic/metabolomic profiling, high-dimensional immunophenotyping, single-cell/spatial omics, and quantitative neuroimaging — now enable fine-scale dissection of host-microbe-metabolism-brain interactions. By prioritizing validated biomarkers and actionable intervention targets (including dietary strategies, microbiome-targeted approaches, and metabolic/anti-inflammatory modulation), this Research Topic aims to advance risk stratification and provide a mechanistic foundation for the prevention and treatment of neuroinflammatory disorders and neuro-oncological conditions.We welcome Original Research, Systematic Reviews/Scoping Reviews, and Brief Reports spanning preclinical, clinical, and translational research. Submissions should provide clear descriptions of study models and/or cohorts and adhere to standardized reporting whenever applicable. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: (i) key mediators and mechanistic pathways of the gut–brain axis implicated in neuroinflammation and/or brain tumors, including immune signaling networks, intestinal and blood–brain barrier integrity, vagal/autonomic circuits, and microbiota-derived metabolites; (ii) associations among dietary modulation, microbiome profiles, and brain-related outcomes across metabolic, inflammatory, and oncologic contexts; (iii) microbiome–immune–metabolic crosstalk in brain tumors/neuro-oncology, encompassing symptom biology, treatment response, therapy-associated toxicity, and supportive-care relevance; (iv) the role of metabolic disorders as modifiers of neuroinflammatory states and downstream cognitive, behavioral, and neurological phenotypes; and (v) integrative multi-omics and computational strategies (e.g., metabolomics, metagenomics, neuroimaging, Topic editors: Yingyu Zhou, WEIWEI LIN, Dan Xiao, Deyong Zeng, Masaru Tanokura Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/77976/gut-brain-axis-in-health-and-disease-dietary-modulation-metabolic-disorders-neuroinflammation-and-tumors