Circulating short chain fatty acids in Alzheimer's disease: A cross-sectional observational study
Moira Marizzoni, Luigi Coppola, Cristina Festari, Delia Luongo, Dominic Salamone, Daniele Naviglio, Andrea Soricelli, Peppino Mirabelli, Marco Salvatore, Annamaria Cattaneo, Giovanni B. Frisoni
Abstract
Short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), produced mainly by gut microbes, might play a role in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We examined the SCFAs profile in 28 individuals with cognitive impairment due to AD (CI-AD), 29 with cognitive impairment not due to AD (CI-NAD), and 10 cognitively unimpaired (CU). CI-AD showed higher levels of acetate and valerate and lower levels of butyrate than CU and CI-NAD (p < 0.018). Acetate separated CI-AD from CI-NAD with AUC = 0.95 while the best neurodegeneration-related biomarker was GFAP with AUC = 0.79. SCFAs use for diagnosis and as treatment target in AD deserve further studies.