Periodontal Disease Bacteria Tied to Alzheimer’s Disease
An interesting article titled “Alzheimer’s Disease-Like Neurodegeneration in Porphyromonas gingivalis Infected Neurons with Persistent Expression of Active Gingipains” appears in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease written by Ursula Haditsch et al. (no. 75, pp. 1361–1376, 2020). The article seeks to explore the connections between Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis), the main pathogen that causes chronic periodontitis, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In the article, the researchers sought to show that intraneuronal P. gingivalis and gingipain expression in vitro after infecting neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). The researchers looked at the effect of the bacteria on the neurons at 24, 48, and 72 hours. The researchers used transmission electron microscopy, confocal microscopy, and bacterial colony to cause infection. They monitored gingipain expression by immunofluorescence and RT-qPCR, and protease activity with activity-based probes. The researchers used immunofluorescence, western blot, and ELISA to … Read more