The Gut-Brain Axis in Alzheimer’s Disease: Exploring Microbial Influences and Therapeutic Strategies

🎖️ Top 10% JournalNov 23, 2025Molecular neurobiology

How Gut Microbes May Affect Alzheimer's Disease and Possible Treatments

AI simplified

Gut-Brain Axis on OpenScience ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Abstract

Disruption of gut microbial balance, known as dysbiosis, is associated with increased amyloid-beta deposition and tau hyperphosphorylation, key features of Alzheimer's disease.

Gut microbiota play a critical role in immune regulation and metabolic activity linked to brain function.
Dysbiosis is connected to oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and impaired neurotransmission in the context of Alzheimer's disease.
Microbial metabolites can influence the permeability of the blood-brain barrier and affect neuroimmune responses.
Emerging evidence suggests gut microbiota may contribute to early onset and progression of Alzheimer's through systemic inflammation.
Therapeutic strategies aimed at modulating the gut microbiome may help restore balance and mitigate cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease.

AI simplified

Microbiota residing in the human gastrointestinal tract play a critical role in maintaining homeostasis through immune regulation, metabolic activity, and signaling to the central nervous system. Recent studies have highlighted the influence of gut microbiota on neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer's disease (AD), through the microbiota-gut-brain axis. This bidirectional communication system involves neural, hormonal, and immunological pathways, linking gut health directly with brain function. Disruption of the gut microbial balance-known as dysbiosis-has been associated with increased amyloid-beta (Aβ) deposition, tau hyperphosphorylation, oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and impaired neurotransmission, all of which are key pathological features of AD. Microbial metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids, trimethylamine N-oxide, and gasotransmitters influence the permeability of the blood-brain barrier and modulate neuroimmune responses. Emerging evidence also indicates that gut microbiota may contribute to the early onset and progression of AD through systemic inflammation and metabolic dysfunction. Modulating the gut microbiome, therefore, presents a novel avenue for therapeutic intervention. This review aims to synthesize current findings on how gut microbiota alterations contribute to AD pathology. Furthermore, it explores therapeutic strategies-including diet, probiotics, prebiotics, polyphenols, and fecal microbiota transplantation-that hold potential in restoring microbial balance and mitigating cognitive decline in AD.

Full Text

Full text is available at the source.

View full text (PDF) ↗View full text (HTML) ↗View full text (PDF) ↗