Gut microbiome alterations in Alzheimer’s disease

By Nicholas M. Vogt, R. Kerby, K. A. Dill-McFarland, Sandra Harding, A. Merluzzi, Sterling C. Johnson, C. Carlsson, S. Asthana, Henrik Zetterberg, Kaj Blennow and 2 more. Scientific Reports, 2017

1,842 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. However, the etiopathogenesis of this devastating disease is not fully understood. Recent studies in rodents suggest that alterations in the gut microbiome may contribute to amyloid deposition, yet the microbial communities associated with AD have not been characterized in humans. Towards this end, we characterized the bacterial taxonomic composition of fecal samples from participants with and without a diagnosis of dementia due to AD. Our analyses revealed that the gut microbiome of AD participants has decreased microbial diversity and is compositionally distinct from control age- and sex-matched individuals. We identified phylum- through genus-wide differences in bacterial abundance including decreased Firmicutes, increased Bacteroidetes, and decreased Bifidobacterium in the microbiome of AD participants. Furthermore, we observed correlations between levels of differentially abundant genera and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of AD. These findings add AD to the growing list of diseases associated with gut microbial alterations, as well as suggest that gut bacterial communities may be a target for therapeutic intervention.

Subfields: Biological Psychiatry, Molecular Biology, Physiology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f2dceb542a4661d53472fcb8639466564b3f5497

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Biological Psychiatry

1. K. Kowalski
2. A. Mulak

In Molecular Biology

1. J. Long
2. Antonio Gasbarrini
3. K. Kowalski
4. A. Mulak
5. D. Holtzman

In Physiology

1. J. Long
2. K. Kowalski
3. A. Mulak
4. D. Holtzman
5. Berislav Zlokovic

Citations in the corpus

• Microbiota in health and diseases (2022, background): “Particularly in this study, a decrease in phylum like Firmicutes, Actinobacteria (member of Bifidobacterium) and an increase in phylum of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria were observed in the AD group.(274) Reduction in Firmicutes and Bifidobacterium has been well studied for their association with ”
• Alzheimer Disease: An Update on Pathobiology and Treatment Strategies (2019, positive): “Several studies have profiled the composition of the gut microbiota in both mouse models of amyloidosis (APP/ PS1) and in human participants with dementia due to AD and have found significant differences in the overall abundance and diversity of microbial species relative to WT animals or non-dement”
• Gut Microbiota is Altered in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease (2018, positive): “A recent study showed that gut microbiota was altered in AD patients [24].”
• What is the Healthy Gut Microbiota Composition? A Changing Ecosystem across Age, Environment, Diet, and Diseases (2019, background): “[98] compared gut microbiota composition from patients with and without a diagnosis of AD and revealed a lower microbial diversity compositionally distinct from control-age and sex-matched individuals, with a decrease in Firmicutes and Bifidobacterium abundance and an increase in Bacteroidetes abund”
• Brain-Gut-Microbiota Axis in Alzheimer’s Disease (2019, background): “The relative bacterial abundance correlated with the increase of cerebrospinal fluid markers of AD pathology.(95) Neurodegenerative disorders usually reveal in advanced age, when the gut microbiota composition is influenced by variety of factors.”