Dr. Barbara Bendlin leads study identifying new target in the gut for reducing Alzheimer’s risk
A compound produced by bacteria in most people’s digestive tract increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and speeds up cognitive decline in dementia patients, making it an attractive target for a treatment that could reduce Alzheimer’s risk, according to a new study led by Barbara Bendlin, PhD, MA, professor, Geriatrics and Gerontology.
Nearly ten years ago, a research team headed by Dr. Bendlin and Federico Rey, PhD, professor, University of Wisconsin Department of Bacteriology, discovered that the communities of microbes living in the intestines of Alzheimer’s disease patients differ from those of healthy people.
“Since then, we’ve been trying to figure out how this difference in the gut perhaps leads to changes in the brain,” says Dr. Bendlin.
In the recent study, published in the journal Nature Communications, Dr. Bendlin, Dr. Rey and collaborators show that a compound called imidazole propionate (ImP)—produced in the gut by some types of bacteria—plays an important role in brain changes that result in Alzheimer’s disease and related cases of dementia. Some people have guts that seem to produce a lot of ImP; some people don’t.