The brain might also have a microbiome - May 2024

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The brain might also have a microbiome – what you need to know

The Conversation

• "In healthy brains, the so-called “blood-brain barrier” shields the brain from the blood and any harmful substances dissolved in it. However, during ageing and in neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, this protective barrier becomes leaky and blood and harmful substances can enter the brain."
• HIV study of the brain..." found non-human genetic material that pointed to the presence of more than 173 types of bacteria and phages (viruses that infect bacteria) in the brains they studied."
• "The human brain microbiome was found to be a subset (about 20%) of the gut microbiome."

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VitaminDwiki – Microbiome contains

Some of the 38 Microbiome articles

• Nutrients, Microbiome, and Chronic Diseases - April 2023
• Fecal transplants - many studies
• Healthy microbiota might reduce COVID-19 – several studies
• Poor absorption of Vitamin D is strongly related to type of gut bacteria – Dec 2020
• Vitamin D and the Host-Gut Microbiome: A Brief Overview– June 2020
• Parkinson's Disease and gut microbiome - several studies
• Vitamin D levels change Gut Microbiota – 25 study review Sept 2021
• Gut Microbiota: improved by Vitamin D – narrative review – July 2021
• Gut microbiome massively changed by weekly vitamin D – July 2015
• Also: Google Scholar on Microbiome includes:The cancer microbiome - June 2019, The Healthy Microbiome—What Is the Definition of a Healthy Gut Microbiome? - Jan 2021, The gut microbiome in neurological disorders - Feb 2020, Understanding the role of the gut microbiome in gastrointestinal cancer: A review -Jan 2023, The human microbiome and COVID-19: A systematic review - June 2021, *Interaction between drugs and the gut microbiome - July 2020

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Unexpected Discovery of Microbiome Inside Our Brains But Why Is It There? - April 2024 video

YouTube 13 minutes
0:00 Who are we? The bacteria inside of us
2:00 Origins of microbiology
2:40 Microbiological biofilm
3:25 Lungs...are there bacteria there?
4:50 Bacterial map
5:20 What about the brain?
6:10 First research on bacteria in the brain
8:00 What's happening here though?
8:35 Recent study on brain bacteria
10:20 Overall conclusions
links which work on youtube
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
https://theconversation.com/the-brain...
https://theconversation.com/skin-mout...
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/art...

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Brain microbiome - Perplexity AI May 2024

The concept of a brain microbiome, which refers to the presence of a community of microorganisms within the brain, is a topic of ongoing scientific investigation and debate. Here is a summary of the current understanding based on the provided sources:

Evidence Supporting the Brain Microbiome

1. Presence of Microbial Sequences: Several studies have identified microbial sequences in both pathological and non-pathological human brain samples. These findings suggest that microbes might inhabit the brain, although contamination remains a concern.
2. Diversity of Microbes: Research has reported a remarkable diversity of microbes in the brain, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses. For instance, a study using the electronic tree of life (eToL) method found a variety of microbial species in both control and Alzheimer's disease (AD) brains, with some species being more abundant in AD brains.
3. Microbial Influence on Neurodegenerative Diseases: Emerging evidence suggests that the brain microbiome might play a role in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Microbes could potentially induce chronic neuroinflammation, contributing to disease progression.
4. Comparison with Gut Microbiome: The brain microbiome appears to be a subset of the gut microbiome, accounting for about 20% of its diversity. This suggests a possible link between the gut and brain microbiomes, with gut microbes potentially influencing brain health.

Challenges and Controversies

1. Contamination Concerns: One of the major challenges in brain microbiome research is distinguishing true microbial presence from contamination. Techniques used to detect microbes, such as RNA sequencing, can be prone to contamination, making it difficult to confirm the existence of a brain microbiome definitively.
2. Methodological Limitations: The field faces technical limitations and methodological differences that need to be addressed to ensure the reliability and validity of research findings. Advanced techniques like metagenomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics are being employed to better characterize the brain microbiome.
3. Lack of Causal Evidence: While associations between the brain microbiome and neurodegenerative diseases have been observed, establishing a causal relationship remains challenging. More research is needed to determine whether these microbes directly contribute to disease or are merely correlated with it.

Future Research Directions

1. Characterizing Microbial Composition: Future studies aim to further characterize the composition and dynamics of the brain microbiome, examining differences between brain regions and individuals. This could help identify specific microbial signatures associated with neurodegenerative diseases.
2. Mechanisms of Microbial Invasion: Understanding how microbes enter and persist in the brain is crucial. Potential pathways include breaching the blood-brain barrier, traveling up nerves from the gut, or entering through the nasal cavity.
3. Therapeutic Potential: Research into the brain microbiome could lead to innovative treatment targets and diagnostic methods for neurodegenerative diseases. Identifying distinct microbial profiles could enhance early detection and enable the development of targeted interventions.

In conclusion, while there is compelling evidence suggesting the presence of a brain microbiome, significant challenges remain in confirming its existence and understanding its role in brain health and disease. Ongoing research is crucial to unravel these complexities and explore the potential implications for clinical practice.

Click here for 18 references
One of the 18 references
The remarkable complexity of the brain microbiome in health and disease - Feb 2023 preprint PDF

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Does the blood brain barrier decrease with age? Perplexity AI - May 2024

Yes, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) does decrease in integrity with age. This phenomenon has been extensively studied and documented in various research articles. Here are some key points from the provided sources:

Structural and Functional Changes

1. Increased Permeability: Aging is associated with increased permeability of the BBB. This means that the barrier becomes more "leaky," allowing substances that are normally restricted from entering the brain to pass through more easily. This increased permeability has been observed in both human and animal studies.
2. Tight Junction Proteins: The expression of tight junction proteins, which are crucial for maintaining the integrity of the BBB, decreases with age. Studies have shown a reduction in proteins such as occludin and ZO-1 in aged brains, contributing to the breakdown of the barrier.
3. Pericyte and Astrocyte Function: Pericytes and astrocytes play critical roles in maintaining BBB integrity. With aging, there is a reduction in pericyte coverage and astrocyte function, which further compromises the BBB.

Mechanisms and Consequences

1. Neuroinflammation: Aging is associated with increased neuroinflammation, which can exacerbate BBB dysfunction. Inflammatory cytokines and other mediators can disrupt the tight junctions and increase BBB permeability.
2. Transporter Changes: The function of various transporters that help in the clearance of toxic substances from the brain decreases with age. For example, the expression of glucose transporter (Glut1) and P-glycoprotein (P-gp) decreases, affecting the brain's ability to maintain homeostasis.
3. Glymphatic System: The glymphatic system, which helps in the clearance of waste products from the brain, is also impaired with aging. This impairment can contribute to the accumulation of toxic substances in the brain, further affecting BBB integrity.

Implications for Neurodegenerative Diseases

1. Alzheimer's Disease and Other Disorders: The breakdown of the BBB is a hallmark of many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia (VaD), and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). The increased permeability allows neurotoxic substances to enter the brain, contributing to the pathogenesis of these diseases.
2. Cognitive Decline: Even in the absence of overt neurodegenerative disease, the age-related decline in BBB integrity is associated with cognitive decline. This is due to the disruption of the controlled environment necessary for optimal neuronal function.

Research and Therapeutic Approaches

1. Biomarkers: Identifying biomarkers of BBB dysfunction can help in the early detection of age-related cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases. Techniques such as dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) are used to measure BBB permeability.
2. Therapeutic Interventions: Research is ongoing to find ways to protect or restore BBB function. This includes exploring drugs that can enhance BBB integrity and investigating the role of microbial-derived metabolites in maintaining BBB physiology.

In summary, the integrity of the blood-brain barrier decreases with age due to structural and functional changes, increased permeability, and reduced function of tight junction proteins, pericytes, and astrocytes. This decline contributes to neuroinflammation, impaired transporter function, and glymphatic system dysfunction, which are associated with cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases.
Click here for 20 references

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VitaminDWiki – Overview Alzheimer's-Cognition and Vitamin D contains:

• FACT: Cognitive decline is 19X more likely if low vitamin D
• FACT: Dementia is associated with low vitamin D levels.
• FACT: Alzheimer’s Dementia 2.3X more likely in elderly if low vitamin D – Dec 2022
• FACT: Dementia is associated with low vitamin D - many studies
• FACT: Alzheimer's Disease is 4X less likely if high vitamin D
• FACT: Every single risk factor listed for Alzheimer's Disease is also a risk factor for low vitamin D levels
• FACT: Elderly cognition gets worse as the elderly vitamin D levels get even lower (while in senior homes)
• OBSERVATION: Reports of increased vitamin D levels result in improved cognition
• OBSERVATION: Alzheimer’s patients 3X more likely to have a malfunctioning vitamin D receptor gene – 2012
• OBSERVATION: Alzheimer's Disease has been seen to halt when vitamin D was added.
• OBSERVATION: Alzheimer’s is associated with all 7 of the genes which restrict vitamin D
• OBSERVATION: 39 vitamin D and Alz. or Cognition intervention trials as of Sept 2018
• OBSERVATION: 2 Meta-analysis in 2012 agreed that Alzheimer's Disease. associated with low vitamin D
• OBSERVATION: 50X increase in Alzheimer's while decrease in vitamin D
• OBSERVATION: Vitamin D reduces Alzheimer’s disease in 11 ways
• OBSERVATION: Alzheimer’s cognition improved by 4,000 IU of vitamin D
• OBSERVATION: Plaque removed in mice by equiv. of 14,000 IU daily
• OBSERVATION: DDT (which decreases Vit D) increases risk of Alzheimer's by up to 3.8X
• OBSERVATION: 2% of people have 2 copies of the poor gene reference: Alz Org
• OBSERVATION: Genes do not change rapidly enough to account for the huge increase in incidence
• OBSERVATION: End of Alzheimer's videos, transcripts and many studies protocol has been very successful
  • It adjusts Vitamin D, B-12, Iron, Omega-3, food, etc, and can now be done at home.
• FACT: Vitamin D is extremely low cost and has very very few side effects
• CONCLUSION: Everyone concerned about cognitive decline or Alzheimer's Disease should take vitamin D
• PREDICTION MET: By 2024 Omega-3 and high dose Vitamin D will be found to reverse Alzheimer's in humans
  There are 13+ Alzheimer’s meta-analyses in VitaminDWiki
  There are 97+ Alzheimer’s studies in VitaminDWiki
  Dementia is associated with low vitamin D - many studies 50+ studies
  16+ studies in both categories Cognitive and Omega-3

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VitaminDWiki - 2 studies in both categories Cognition and Microbiome

This list is automatically updated