September 19, 2019
Dementia is a condition with no cure, that roughly one third of those of us who live until 90 will develop. One form of dementia, Alzheimer’s, is in part caused by the buildup of amyloid-beta plaques in the brain. A normally functioning immune system plays a role in clearing these plaques from the brain, although the system can get out of balance, and microglia immune cells can switch from being helpful to causing damage to the brain.
University of Chicago researchers believe that the gut bacteria, or microbiome, of patients has an important role in keeping the microglia cells in check. The team studied mice that had been bred to have extra amyloid precursor protein and gave them antibiotics which altered their gut bacteria. When they looked at the brain tissue of these mice, they saw that the microglia cells were still behaving correctly, and their brains had fewer plaques.
In order to check that the microbiome was playing a role the team then reintroduced microbes into the mice that had been treated with antibiotics. In these mice, they observed an increase in plaques and markers for damaging microglia. This result was only observed in male mice though, although it is unclear at this stage why this is so.
Further experiments may shed light on whether or not the same effects are observed in humans. If so, this may lead to antibiotics being prescribed to Alzheimer’s patients to reduce the damage caused by this disease.
Source: Smithsonian
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