The results of a study carried out by a large group of experts from Switzerland and Italy, published in Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
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In recent years, there have been suggestions that the composition of the intestinal microflora (microbiota) – the community of microorganisms that inhabit the digestive tract – may play a key role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, and the results obtained by the professor of the University of Geneva Giovanni Frisoni and his colleagues confirm this hypothesis.
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Scientists scanned the brains of 89 people between the ages of 65 and 85. Some of them were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or other neurodegenerative diseases that cause the same memory problems, and some were healthy. The researchers assessed the presence and volume of so-called amyloid plaques in the participants’ brain tissue. Clusters (plaques) of abnormally folded amyloid beta protein in brain tissue are one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, the scientists determined the levels of various markers of inflammation and proteins produced by gut bacteria in the participants’ blood, and also assessed the composition of their gut microbiota.
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It turned out that the composition of bacteria in the intestines of patients with Alzheimer’s disease differs from the composition of the microbiota of healthy people – there is less diversity, and the balance between microbes is disturbed: some types of bacteria are too many, while others, on the contrary, are too few.
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However, there was a clear link between the level of certain chemical compounds produced by intestinal bacteria in the participants’ blood and the size of amyloid deposits in their brain tissues. So, the more bacterial lipopolysaccharides in the blood, as well as acetate and valerate, the more amyloid plaques were present in their brain tissues. Conversely, a high level of another substance, butyrate, corresponded to a decrease in the volume of amyloid deposits in the brain.
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Frisoni and colleagues suggest that some compounds produced by gut bacteria enter the bloodstream to activate the immune system, causing chronic systemic inflammation. This leads to a violation of the mechanism of interaction between the immune and nervous systems, triggering the process of neurodegeneration. At the same time, other bacterial substances, on the contrary, have anti-inflammatory and protective properties of neurons, due to which they directly or indirectly affect the functioning of the brain.
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This discovery allows for a new approach to the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers said. For this, prebiotics can be used, which are a breeding ground for beneficial intestinal bacteria. True, first it is necessary to determine which species of bacteria should be “fed” noted Freezones.
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