In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine earlier this year, microbiologist Hemraj Dodiya of the University of Chicago and colleagues sought to determine whether bacteria in the gut could influence the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
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In their study, Dodiya and his colleagues found evidence that bacteria can influence Alzheimer’s symptoms in male mice. They tested the effects of microbes in the gut on amyloid beta and microglia in the brain using a line of transgenic mice developed specifically to have extra amyloid precursor proteins.
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Although we’re not likely to start giving long-term antibiotics to treat Alzheimer’s disease, the finding that antibiotics reduced Alzheimer’s symptoms in male mice can now be harnessed to better understand timing and influence of gut bacteria in Alzheimer’s disease. Is there a window of time in which bacterial function is critical? In the future, will we be able to seed our guts with specific bacteria to reduce Alzheimer’s symptoms? More studies are needed to understand these processes and extend the lessons learned in mouse models to human disease.
Read full, original post: The Gut Microbiome Could Speed Up the Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease
