The Gut's Link to Alzheimer's

A fungi typically found in the gut could be a key factor in Alzheimer’s disease, scientists say.

Candida albicans is pathogenic yeast that lives in the human gastrointestinal tracts.

But researchers found that when it was injected into a mouse’s bloodstream, it was able to cross the brain’s protective barrier and triggered inflammation, that eventually caused memory loss.

Looking closer, they saw the rodent’s brains had developed tissue structures similar to those seen in people with Alzheimer’s. Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $15.00 (as of 12:45 UTC - Details)

The study is the latest to suggest gut bacteria plays a crucial role in neurodegenerative disease, and offers a clear target for researchers to examine while they work towards a treatment or even a cure.

Professor Dr David Corry at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, explained: ‘An increasing number of clinical observations by us and other groups indicates that fungi are becoming a more common cause of upper airway allergic diseases such as asthma, as well as other conditions such as sepsis, a potentially life-threatening disease caused by the body’s response to an infection.’

He added fungal infections causing airway allergic diseases and sepsis have been associated with increased risk for dementia later.

Dr Corry said: ‘These observations led us to investigate the possibility that fungus might produce a brain infection and, if so, the consequences of having that kind of infection.’

Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $15.00 (as of 03:50 UTC - Details) When entering the brain, the infection formed different tissue-structures – granuloma-type structures – that caused temporary and mild memory impairments.

The effect was reversed ten days later when the infection cleared – but some cells remained active.

Dr Corry said: ‘We thought that yeast would not enter the brain, but it does.

‘In the brain, the yeast triggered the activity of microglia, a resident type of immune cell.

‘The cells became very active “eating and digesting” the yeast.

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