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In fact, there is a correlation between a specific imbalance of the intestinal microbiota and the development of Alzheimer’s disease, as the scientific community has long suspected. Geneva and Italian researchers were able to confirm the link.
This result allows “to consider new preventive strategies based on the modulation of the microbiota of people at risk”, writes the University of Geneva (UNIGE) in a statement released on Monday. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. It is incurable and affects one million people in Europe.
Read also: When the stomach hurts the brain
UNIGE warns, however, that we should not rejoice too soon either. Taking a bacterial cocktail to restore the balance of the gut microbiota or products that feed the good bacteria would only be effective at a “very early” stage of the disease.
However, early detection of neurodegenerative diseases is still proving difficult for doctors. “We need to develop protocols to identify high-risk people to treat them well before detectable symptoms appear,” UNIGE points out.
Over-representation of bacteria
Patients with Alzheimer’s have an altered gut microbiota. It has less microbial diversity and an over-representation of some bacteria, UNIGE notes. In addition, Alzheimer’s patients also suffer from an inflammatory phenomenon of the blood.
Read also: Alzheimer’s: A Steamed Myth?
The researchers wanted to know if this blood inflammation could be a mediator between the microbiota and the brain. The study of 89 people between the ages of 65 and 85, some of whom had Alzheimer’s disease and others not, allowed them to answer this hypothesis in the affirmative.
The work provides evidence of an association between certain proteins in the intestinal microbiota and cerebral amyloidosis through an inflammatory phenomenon in the blood, UNIGE concludes. This discovery is the subject of a publication in the “Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease”.
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