A new study published in a special issue of the journal iScience links low doses of antibiotics around birth to significant changes in the infant microbiome. The study, conducted on mice, also linked antibiotic exposure to important changes in gene expression in parts of the brain responsible for neurodevelopment.
This research, “Effects of Early-Life Penicillin Exposure on the Gut Microbiome and Front Cortex and Amygdala Gene Expression,” may help explain the disturbing rise in neurodevelopmental disorders that we’re seeing in children in the United States and other industrialized countries around the world.
