Researchers in the UK have used DNA sequencing to examine bacteria in post-mortem brains from patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Their findings suggest increased bacterial populations and different proportions of specific bacteria in Alzheimer’s, compared with healthy brains. The findings may support evidence that bacterial infection and inflammation in the brain could contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease that results in cognitive decline, and eventually death. In the brain, the disease causes neurons to die and break down, and involves high levels of a peptide called amyloid and aggregations of a protein called tau. However, scientists are coming to appreciate that inflammation may also play a role.
“Alzheimer’s brains usually contain evidence of neuroinflammation, and researchers increasingly think that this could be a possible driver of the disease, by causing neurons in the brain to degenerate,” says David Emery, a researcher from the University of Bristol, and an author on the study, which was published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.
Journal article:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00195/full
Source:https://blog.frontiersin.org/2017/07/24/frontiers-in-aging-neuroscience-bacteria-found-in-alzheimers-brains/
Source: Corina Marinescu
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