The intestine, as we know, is our second brain. It ‘speaks’ with the brain and manages to influence it in health and illness. So much so that “inflammation of the colon anticipates the onset of Alzheimer’s memory defects”. This is suggested by an Italian study conducted as part of Spoke 4 of Mnesys, the ‘Italian Cern’ for brain research financed by the Pnrr, the soul of the I National Neuroscience Forum which ends today in Naples.
“The body – explain the scientists – speaks to the brain not only through nervous connections, but also by means of signals coming from the microbiota”, the mega-mix of microorganisms that live in the intestine. “Identifying which of these signals can influence brain health and possibly have a role in the ‘natural history’ of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s”, is one of the objectives of Spoke 4 and of the ‘Experimental colitis in young Tg2576′ study. mice accelerates the onset of an Alzheimer’s-like clinical phenotype’, conducted on rodents by a research group from the University of Bologna led by Laura Calzà and Luciana Giardino.
The work, published in May in ‘Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy’, indicates precisely the link between colon inflammation and Alzheimer’s risk. “By aging prematurely – the researchers describe – the intestinal microbiota causes organic inflammation and alters the properties of astrocytesa population of glial cells that plays a fundamental role in supporting the activity of neurons”.
“This work – says Calzà, professor of domestic animal anatomy at the Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology of the University of Bologna – falls within the reference framework established by the 2020 ‘Lancet Neurology’ commission on the prevention, intervention and treatment of dementia and on the importance of identifying the modifiable risk factors that come into play on the onset of the symptomatic phase of this pathology. If it is true that Alzheimer’s disease develops subtly for years, damaging the brain before the symptoms appear and diagnosed, it is equally true that knowing this pre-symptomatic phase of the disease opens up completely new preventive and therapeutic possibilities, for example by appropriately regulating the signals that derive from the microbiota”.
“To date – recalls Patrizia Fattori, professor of Physiology at the University of Bologna and coordinator of Spoke 4 – the Lancet Commission on prevention, intervention and care for dementia has identified 12 modifiable risk factors responsible for approximately 40% of dementia worldwide, which consequently could theoretically be prevented or delayed and which affect individuals of all ages. Our understanding of dementia is changing, with the more recent description of new pathological causes, and this – the specialist suggests – will allow us to increasingly reduce the risk. impact of these pathologies”.
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