Amal Kassab

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition characterized by considerable cognitive decline and functional impairment, primarily due to the progressive alteration of neurons, microglia, and astrocytes. Pathological manifestations of AD include the loss of synaptic plasticity, reduction in synaptic strength by amyloid-beta, aggregation, and neurotoxicity from tau protein post-translational modifications, all contributing to the disruption of neural networks. Despite its current pharmacological treatment for AD, different approaches to treat such disease are being developed, from a microbiome perspective. The microbiome encompasses a diverse microorganism, including beneficial bacteria that create a positive impact to diminish AD pathogenesis. Growing evidence suggests that probiotic, prebiotic, synbiotic, and postbiotics can positively modulate the gut–brain axis, reducing systemic inflammation, restoring neurotransmitter balance, and improving gut health, thereby possibly mitigating AD pathogenesis. Moreover, there is paraprobiotics as the most recently developed biotherapeutic with beneficial effects. This review explores the correlation between AD and gut–brain axis as a novel biotherapeutic target. The underlying mechanism of the microbiota–gut–brain axis in AD is examined. Novel insights into the current applications as potential treatment and its limitations are highlighted.

Advances in aging studies brought about by heterochronic parabiosis suggest that aging might be a reversable process that is affected by changes in the systemic milieu of organs and cells. Given the broadness of such a systemic approach, research to date has mainly questioned the involvement of “shared organs” versus “circulating factors”. However, in the absence of a clear understanding of the chronological development of aging and a unified platform to evaluate the successes claimed by specific rejuvenation methods, current literature on this topic remains scattered. Herein, aging is assessed from an engineering standpoint to isolate possible aging potentiators via a juxtaposition between biological and mechanical systems. Such a simplification provides a general framework for future research in the field and examines the involvement of various factors in aging. Based on this simplified overview, the kidney as a filtration organ is clearly implicated, for the first time, with the aging phenomenon, necessitating a re-evaluation of current rejuvenation studies to untangle the extent of its involvement and its possible role as a potentiator in aging. Based on these findings, the review concludes with potential translatable and long-term therapeutics for aging while offering a critical view of rejuvenation methods proposed to date.