Oral microbiota and Alzheimer’s disease: Do all roads lead to Rome?

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative pathology affecting milions of people worldwide associated with deposition of senile plaques. While the genetic and environmental risk factors associated with the onset and consolidation of late onset AD are heterogeneous and sporadic, growing evidence also suggests a potential link between some infectious diseases caused by oral microbiota and AD. Oral microbiota dysbiosis is purported to contribute either directly to amyloid protein production, or indirectly to neuroinflammation, occurring as a consequence of bacterial invasion. Over the last decade, the development of Human Oral Microbiome database (HOMD) has deepened our understanding of oral microbes and their different roles during the human lifetime. Oral pathogens mostly cause caries, periodontal disease, and edentulism in aged population, and, in particular, alterations of the oral microbiota causing chronic periodontal disease have been associated with the risk of AD. Here we describe how different alterations of the oral microbiota may be linked to AD, highlighting the importance of a good oral hygiene for the prevention of oral microbiota dysbiosis.