Crosstalk of metabolic factors and neurogenic signaling in adult neurogenesis: Implication of metabolic regulation for mental and neurological diseases

Abstract Metabolic disorders like diabetes and obesity are commonly companied with neurological diseases and psychiatric disorders. Accumulating evidences indicated that cellular metabolic factors affect adult neurogenesis and have modulating effects on neurodegenerative disorders and psychiatric diseases. Adult neurogenesis contains multiple steps including proliferation of neural stem cells, lineage commitments of neural progenitor cells, maturation into functional neurons, and integration into neuronal network. Many intrinsic and extrinsic factors produced from neural stem/progenitor cells and their microenvironment or neurogenic niche take roles in modulating neurogenesis and contribute to the brain repair and functional recoveries in many neurological diseases and psychiatric disorders. In this article, we review current progress about how different growth factors, neurotrophin, neurotransmitters and transcriptional factors work on regulating neurogenic process. In particular, we emphasize the roles of the cellular metabolic factors, such as insulin/IGF signaling, incretins, and lipid metabolic signaling molecules in modulating adult neurogenesis, and discuss their impacts on neurological behaviors. We propose that the metabolic factors could be the new therapeutic targets for adult neurogenesis. Plus, the metabolism-regulating drugs have the potentials for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and mental disorders.