I focused on the link between gut microbiota and depression. During my MD study, I used two different animal models including chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) model and chronic unexpected mild stress (CUMS) models to investigate depression. Depression-like behavior can be measured by force swimming test or tail suspension test, and anxiety-like behavior can be measured by open filed test. Moreover, germ-free (GF) mice model allowed us to better understand the effects of gut microbiota on the host brain. However, the underlying mechanisms by which gut microbiota regulate brain functions and behavioral phenotypes remain largely unknown. We thus performed a muli-omics study and got some very interesting results, such as the inhibition of pre-mRNA alternative splicing and down-regulation of inflammation related pathways may play a key role in the development of antidepressant and antianxiety like behaviors in GF mice.
In the process of experiments and data analysis, I have a strong interest in bioinformatics, and I am trying to learn it by myself. At the same time, I also began to learn R language and programming.
Previous publications:
[1] Rao X, Liu L, Wang H, et al. Regulation of Gut Microbiota Disrupts the Glucocorticoid Receptor Pathway and Inflammation-related Pathways in the Mouse Hippocampus [J]. Exp Neurobiol, 2021, 30(1): 59-72.（IF:2.37）
[2] Liu L, Wang H, Rao X, et al. Comprehensive Analysis of the Lysine Acetylome and Succinylome in the Hippocampus of Gut Microbiota-dysbiosis Mice [J]. Journal of Advanced Research, 2021 （IF:6.992）
[3] Yu Y, Wang H, Rao X, et al. Proteomic Profiling of Lysine Acetylation Indicates Mitochondrial Dysfunction in the Hippocampus of Gut Microbiota-Absent Mice [J]. Front Mol Neurosci, 2021, 14(594332. (IF:4.057）
[4] Zhou C, Rao X, Wang H, et al. Hippocampus-specific Regulation of Long Non-coding RNA and mRNA Expression in Germ-free Mice [J]. Functional & integrative genomics 20(3): 355-365（IF:3.058）