Gut Microbiome Alterations in Alzheimer's Disease

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2017 Oct 21

PMID 29051531

Citations 873

Authors

Nicholas M Vogt

Robert L Kerby

Kimberly A Dill-McFarland

Sandra J Harding

Andrew P Merluzzi

Sterling C Johnson

Cynthia M Carlsson

Sanjay Asthana

Henrik Zetterberg

Kaj Blennow

Barbara B Bendlin

Federico E Rey

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

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.

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