Metabolic profiling in the arena of gut–brain interaction studies for Alzheimer’s disease

O Deda & H G Gika  | Bioanalysis, 12(8), 501-504 (2020)

Keywords: • Alzheimer’s disease • gut–brain interaction • metabolic profiling • metabolites

Since 400 BC, Hippocrates theorized that ‘bad digestion is the root of all evil’, while from the dawn of the twentieth century, Elie Metchnikoff, winner of the Nobel Prize speculated that gut microbiome manipulation with host-friendly bacteria, like those found in yogurt could prove to be the ‘elixir’ of long life. Recent technological advantages highlighted the impact of gut microbiome on human health and facilitated the emergence of these concepts as core research fields. The scientific community nowadays characterizes this large reservoir of microbes that coexist in the intestinal epithelium as hyper or hidden ‘organ’ and ‘symbiome’, recognizing its great importance in the implementation of crucial metabolic reactions. Moreover, the exponentially increasing amount of publications, which are added in a large catalogue of studies, relating various human diseases to the imbalanced symbiosis with the host, proves that this is advancing to a hot research topic.