《TAIPEI TIMES》 Study suggests gut link in Alzheimer’s

INTER-ORGAN CONTACT: Researchers constructed an Alzheimer’s disease model in fruit flies and found that Enterobacteria infection exacerbated neurodegeneration

By Lin Hui-chin and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

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A study by Taiwanese researcher Juang Jyh-lyh （莊志立） highlights the importance of gut-brain crosstalk as a fundamental regulatory system in modulating Alzheimer’s disease neurodegeneration, the National Health Research Institute said on Thursday last week.

For more than two decades, treatment of Alzheimer’s disease has been focused on the hypothesis that pathological accumulation of amyloid beta peptides in the brain triggers inflammatory response and oxidative damage, but recent findings show that inflammation is not caused only by local injuries, but might also stem from gut microbiota dysbiosis, the study said.

The conserved mechanism of inter-organ communication directly contributes to the maintenance of homeostasis, and dysregulation might cause metabolic and neurological disorders, the paper said.

“The intestine has been referred to as the body’s ‘second brain,’ because it shares many similar neuronal functions,” the paper said, adding that in vivo studies have looked into the impact of gut dysbiosis on Alzheimer’s disease.

Constructing an Alzheimer’s disease model in fruit flies, the paper found that Enterobacteria infection strongly exacerbated neurodegeneration via immune hemocyte recruitment to the brain.

To ascertain whether increased levels of hemocytes in the brain in any way affected neurodegneration, Juang and his team genetically depleted hemocytes in one of the test subjects.

The result was markedly diminished neurodegeneration and prolonged survival, the paper said, adding that the results suggest that the persistent enteric infection is importantly involved in modulating Alzheimer’s disease neurodegeneration in fruit flies.

The result suggests a different path for Alzheimer’s treatment, said Juang, who is a researcher at the institute’s Division of Molecular and Genome Medicine.

The study was published by international journal Nature Communications on June 17.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES