Here’s the best guess: By mimicking a viral infection in the pregnant mothers, the team triggered an immune response that landed their offspring with an excessively permeable gut, and one with an unusual collection of microbes. Those microbes produced chemicals that entered the bloodstream and travelled to the brain, where they triggered atypical behaviours. The top culprit is a toxin called 4-ethylphenylsulfate (4EPS), which can trigger anxiety in otherwise healthy animals. When the mice swallowed B-frag, this microbe sealed up their guts and stemmed the flow of 4EPS (and other substances) to
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