ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1595742
The potential of olfaction loss to induce cognitive impairment and anxiety behavior in mice via the microbiota-gut-brain axis
Provisionally accepted
- Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
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Olfactory dysfunction and cognition decline are frequently observed; however, very little is known about whether olfactory disorders trigger cognitive impairment. Here, we induced olfactory loss in mice and investigated whether and how olfactory loss induces cognitive impairment and anxiety behavior. Olfactory loss not only causes a significant decrease in food intake and body weight and an increase in O2 consumption but also induces cognitive impairment and anxiety behavior. Olfactory loss-induced alteration of the gut microbiota is associated with subsequent changes in cecal shortchain fatty acids and serum neurotransmitter levels. Hippocampus proteome and fecal microbial transplantation provide further support for the mechanisms by which olfactory loss triggers cognitive impairment and anxiety behavior via the microbiotagut-brain axis. Our study is expected to provide some evidence for olfactory dysfunction in triggering cognitive impairment through the microbiota-gut-brain axis.
Keywords: olfactory loss, cognitive impairment, Anxiety behavior, Gut Microbiota, Microbiota-gut-brain axis
Received: 18 Mar 2025; Accepted: 13 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Xue, Wang, Liu, Li and Yi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xianfeng Yi, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
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