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University of South Florida Health-led team discovers that the compound fenchol has the same beneficial effect as gut-derived metabolites in reducing neurotoxic amyloid-beta in the brain. Fenchol, a natural compound abundant in some plants including basil, can help protect the brain against Alzheimer’s disease pathology, a preclinical study led by University of South Florida Health (USF Health) researchers suggests. The new study published on October 5, 2021, in the Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, discovered a sensing mechanism associated with the gut microbiome that explains how fenchol reduces neurotoxicity in the Alzheimer’s brain. Emerging evidence indicates that short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs)–...

Fenchol, a natural compound abundant in some plants including basil, can help protect the brain against Alzheimer's disease pathology. …Then, they performed large-scale virtual screening of more than 144,000 natural compounds to find potential candidates that could mimic the same beneficial effect of microbiota produced SCFAs in activating FFAR2 signaling. Identifying a natural compound alternative to SCFAs to optimally target the FFAR2 receptor on neurons is important, because cells in the gut and other organs consume most of these microbial metabolites before they reach the brain through blood circulation, Dr. Yadav noted. Dr. Yadav's team narrowed 15 leading compound candidates...