Establishment of a Consensus Protocol to Explore the Brain Pathobiome in Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease: Research Outline and Call for Collaboration

Authors

Richard Lathe
Nikki M Schultek
Brian J Balin
Garth D Ehrlich
Lavinia Alberi Auber
George Perry
Edward B Breitschwerdt
David B Corry
Richard L Doty
Robert A Rissman
Peter L Nara
Ruth Itzhaki
William A Eimer
Rudolph E Tanzi
Intracell Research Group Consortium Collaborators

Publication Date

11-1-2023

Journal

Alzheimer's & Dementia

DOI

10.1002/alz.13076

PMID

37283269

PMCID

PMC10918877

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

3-7-2024

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Author MSS

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Humans, Alzheimer Disease, Consensus, Cognitive Dysfunction, Brain

Abstract

Microbial infections of the brain can lead to dementia, and for many decades microbial infections have been implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. However, a causal role for infection in AD remains contentious, and the lack of standardized detection methodologies has led to inconsistent detection/identification of microbes in AD brains. There is a need for a consensus methodology; the Alzheimer's Pathobiome Initiative aims to perform comparative molecular analyses of microbes in post mortem brains versus cerebrospinal fluid, blood, olfactory neuroepithelium, oral/nasopharyngeal tissue, bronchoalveolar, urinary, and gut/stool samples. Diverse extraction methodologies, polymerase chain reaction and sequencing techniques, and bioinformatic tools will be evaluated, in addition to direct microbial culture and metabolomic techniques. The goal is to provide a roadmap for detecting infectious agents in patients with mild cognitive impairment or AD. Positive findings would then prompt tailoring of antimicrobial treatments that might attenuate or remit mounting clinical deficits in a subset of patients.

Comments

Associated Data