A growing body of scientific literature shows that the gut microbiome can influence the brain in myriad ways. Now, research conducted on mice reveals that a metabolite released from gut bacteria directly binds to a gene in distant microglia and contributes to cognitive decline. The study, published on June 1 in Cell Host & Microbe finds that blocking the metabolite isoamylamine with an oligonucleotide reverses memory loss in the mice.
“The authors provide an elegant demonstration of the mechanisms by which [the] microbiome-bacteriophage-metabolite axis is dysregulated during aging,” Slavica Krantic, a neuroinflammation researcher at St. Antoine’s Research Center of Sorbonne University in Paris who was not involved in the study, writes in an email to The Scientist. “Maybe most excitingly, this paper brings a proof-of-concept for oligonucleotide-based therapy of cognitive dysfunctions.”
The metabolite isoamylamine (IAA) is released into the gut by bacteria of the Ruminococcaceae family. The study finds that ...
