REVIEW article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition, Psychology and Brain Health
This article is part of the Research TopicBeyond the Plate: The Role of Diet and the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis in Neurodegenerative DiseasesView all 6 articles
Leveraging Microbiome-Based Interventions to Improve the Management of Neurodegenerative Diseases: Evidence for Effects Along the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis
Provisionally accepted
- Rosell Institute for Microbiome and Probiotics, Montreal, Canada
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The microbiota-gut-brain axis (MGBA) has recently emerged as a useful model for the understanding of the onset and progression of neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs). Microbiome-based interventions using biotic supplements (probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics) can modulate the MGBA and constitute relevant solutions to help reduce the risk of neurological changes associated with NDDs and manage symptoms. This narrative review provides a summary of the functioning of the MGBA and of its interactions with disease processes involved in the onset and progression of NDDs. Microbiome-based interventions and their mechanisms of action are reviewed, and important considerations for the design of interventions are discussed. Next, preclinical and clinical studies on the 2 potential of microbiome-based interventions in Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and Huntington's disease (HD) are reviewed. Evidence related to biomarkers of pathology (e.g., beta-amyloid or alpha-synuclein protein depositions), neuroinflammation, and metabolic activity is summarized, along with emerging evidence for the improvement of clinical symptoms and disease trajectories. Overall, preclinical studies show that microbiome-based supplements have significant positive eƯects on mechanisms and pathways involved in the pathophysiology of NDDs. Clinical studies show that these interventions provide important benefits both in terms of biomarkers and clinical symptoms. However, evidence is limited in some key clinical areas, such as mental wellbeing in AD and cognition in PD, and for the management of clinical symptoms in ALS and HD overall. Gaps in knowledge and open questions as well as perspectives for future research are discussed.
Keywords: Microbiome-Based Interventions, Probiotics, Prebiotics, Synbiotics, Postbiotics, Next-generation probiotics, microbiota-gut-brain axis (MGBA), Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs)
Received: 05 Sep 2025; Accepted: 17 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Auclair-Ouellet, Kassem, Bronner, Oula and Binda. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sylvie Binda, sbinda@lallemand.com
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