Gut Microbiome Compositional and Functional Features Associate with Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The gut microbiome is a potentially modifiable factor in Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, understanding of its composition and function regarding AD pathology is limited. METHODS: Shallow-shotgun metagenomic data was used to analyze fecal microbiome from participants enrolled in the Wisconsin Microbiome in Alzheimer's Risk Study, leveraging clinical data and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers. Differential abundance and ordinary least squares regression analyses were performed to find differentially abundant gut microbiome features and their associations with CSF biomarkers of AD and related pathologies. RESULTS: Gut microbiome composition and function differed between people with AD and cognitively unimpaired individuals. The compositional difference was replicated in an independent cohort. Differentially abundant gut microbiome features were associated with CSF biomarkers of AD and related pathologies. DISCUSSION: These findings enhance our understanding of alterations in gut microbial composition and function in AD, and suggest that gut microbes and their pathways are linked to AD pathology.
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a cohort study, done in people. Its evidence level is 3 of 5 (Moderate · trial / cohort / secondary analysis). Trials without a large randomized design, cohorts and secondary analyses give moderate evidence.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Bile Acid 7α-Dehydroxylating Gut Bacteria Secrete Antibiotics that Inhibit Clostridium difficile: Role of Secondary Bile Acids
- Ketogenic diet alleviates colitis by reduction of colonic group 3 innate lymphoid cells through altering gut microbiome
- Altered gut microbiome composition and function are associated with gut barrier dysfunction in healthy relatives of patients with Crohn's disease
- Diet, obesity, and the gut microbiome as determinants modulating metabolic outcomes in a non-human primate model
- Immune Impairment Associated with Vitamin A Deficiency: Insights from Clinical Studies and Animal Model Research
- Glyphosate-based herbicides influence antioxidants, reproductive hormones and gut microbiome but not reproduction: A long-term experiment in an avian model
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.