Gabija Stankevičiūtė¹, Konstancija Ambrazaitė¹

¹Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Medical Academy, Kaunas, Lithuania

Abstract

            Recently, much attention has been paid to the determination of the role of gut microbiota in the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Certain strains of bacteria are thought to affect the maintenance of the neuronal cell cycle, which leads to gene expression or may cause changes in neurotransmitter activity. One of the most common neurodegenerative disorders is dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease. There are many questions in the pathogenesis of this disease, so the hypotheses about the role of gut microbiota in the development of memory, cognitive and motor dysfunction, encourage the search for supporting studies. Furthermore, Alzheimer’s disease (AL) has no associated pathological treatment, which could stop clinical progression of this disease. The right knowledges about etiology of AL could improve prevention of this disease in time. The aim of this work is to review studies, found in the medical literature in finding associations between gut microbiota changes and clinical, morphological expressions of AL.

Aim: to analyze scientific literature and provide a review of literature related to the role of gut microbiota in neurodegenerative diseases.

Methods: literature review and data collection sources were selected from “PubMed” and “Cochrane Library” scientific databases, following dates from 2017 to 2021, using original language key words: “gastrointestinal”, “neurodegenerative diseases”, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, “gut-brain axis”.

Results: 93 studies have been found in “PubMed” and “Cochrane Library” scientific databases. The studies, which analyzed data in vitro or published earlier than 2017 was excluded. Criteria of all analyses of gut microbiota, inflammatory factors and patients with Alzheimer’s diseases was included and applied. 3 meta-analyses and 6 systematic reviews used as a base of this study.

Conclusion: a review of medical literature showed association between gut microbiota and deposition of β – amyloid in the brain, cerebral atrophy and clinical expression of AL.

Keywords: gastrointestinal, neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, gut-brain axis, gut microbiota.