ReviewCurrent opinion in psychiatry2025
Bacteria in the brain: do they have a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease?
Review in Current opinion in psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- From Dysbiosis to Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption: The Metabolite-Mediated Gut-Brain Axis in Alzheimer's Disease.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- Advances in the Core Role and Mechanisms of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Alzheimer's Disease.Brain and behavior · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purpose of reviewWorldwide efforts continue to unravel the complex pathological pathways that lead to Alzheimer's disease. The gut-brain-microbiome axis, a communication pathway between the gut, brain and microorganisms, is emerging as a potential mechanism involved in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. While the gut microbiome's role in Alzheimer's disease has gained significant attention, the brain microbiome remains relatively unexplored. This review summarizes the latest research on the brain microbiome in Alzheimer's disease. RECENT
findingsIn the past 4 years, four out of five studies have found bacteria, such as Streptococcus pneumoniae , in postmortem samples of both control and Alzheimer's disease brains, supporting the idea that the brain is not a sterile environment. Two studies report the overabundance of several bacterial phyla, including Proteobacteria and Actinomycetes, in postmortem Alzheimer's disease brains versus controls. One study reported the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi in a subset of Alzheimer's disease cases compared to controls. SUMMARY: Limitations and challenges persist in studying the brain microbiome, including the lack of standardized assays and data analysis methods, small sample sizes, and inconsistent use of controls for environmental microbial contamination during sample processing. Well designed studies that employ reproducible and rigorous methods are required to elucidate whether microbes are involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.