A new insight on feasibility of pre-, pro-, and synbiotics-based therapies in Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease is a prevalent cause of dementia in the elderly population. The existing treatments in this issue are limited in efficacy besides having several adverse effects. Therefore, developing new therapeutic strategies is a major concern of scientists. This disease is closely linked to gut microflora through the brain–gut–microbiota axis. Targeting gut microbiota by pre-, pro-, and synbiotics supplementation can be effective for its treatment. Herein, we discuss the protecting effects of pre-, pro-, and synbiotics products against Alzheimer’s disease based on comprehensive assessment of animal studies and performed clinical trials. Primarily, we briefly introduced involved pathogenesis, probable drug targets, and its correlation with gut microbiota. Subsequently, we debated preclinical and clinical research studies on the effect of pre-, pro-, and synbiotics agents on brain functionality, metabolic features, and biomarkers that are proven to have therapeutic effects. Searching the online databases revealed therapeutic capabilities of pre-, pro-, and synbiotics in Alzheimer’s disease treatment by some mechanisms such as anti-oxidative stress, anti-inflammatory, prohibiting of apoptosis and DNA damage, insulin regulation, suppressing the aggregation of beta-amyloid (Aβ) and tau proteins, which can be considered as important outcomes of this application.