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Diet–gut microbiome interaction and ferulic acid bioavailability: implications on neurodegenerative disorders

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  • Published:
European Journal of Nutrition Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of the review

Ferulic acid (FA), which occurs naturally as the feruloylated sugar ester in grains, fruits, and vegetables, is critical for combating oxidative stress and alleviating neurodegenerative diseases resulting from free radical-generated protein aggregates in brain cells. However, FA cannot be absorbed in conjugated form. Therefore, strategies to improve the bioavailability of FA are gaining more importance. Ferulic acid esterases (FAE) of the gut microbiota are critical enzymes that facilitate FA release from feruloylated sugar ester conjugates and influence systemic health. This review provides insight into a nutrition-based approach to preventing neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s by altering the diversity of FAE-producing gut microbiota.

Recent findings

The human gut is a niche for a highly dense microbial population. Nutrient components and the quality of food shape the gut microbiota. Microbiota–diet–host interaction primarily involves an array of enzymes that hydrolyse complex polysaccharides and release covalently attached moieties, thereby increasing their bio-accessibility. Moreover, genes encoding polysaccharide degrading enzymes are substrate inducible, giving selective microorganisms a competitive advantage in scavenging nutrients.

Summary

Nutraceutical therapy using specific food components holds promise as a prophylactic agent and as an adjunctive treatment strategy in neurotherapeutics, as it results in upregulation of polysaccharide utilisation loci containing fae genes in the gut microbiota, thereby increasing the release of FA and other antioxidant molecules and combat neurodegenerative processes.

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Data availability

All data relevent to this study are included in the review.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) for providing research facilities. Saarika Pothuvan Kunnummal acknowledges CSIR-Senior Research Fellowship and Mahejibin Khan acknowledges the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for providing a research grant.

Funding

Funding was received from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) as a research grant (ICMR Grant no. 5/7/1741/CH/Adhoc/2021-RMBCH).

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  1. Department of Microbiology and Fermentation Technology, CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, Karnataka, 570020, India

    Saarika Pothuvan Kunnummal & Mahejibin Khan

  2. CSIR-Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, Ghaziabad, 201002, India

    Saarika Pothuvan Kunnummal & Mahejibin Khan

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MK conceptualised the review, SPK performed the literature search and data analysis, wrote the first draft and all the authors drafted and/or critically revised the manuscript.

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Kunnummal, S.P., Khan, M. Diet–gut microbiome interaction and ferulic acid bioavailability: implications on neurodegenerative disorders. Eur J Nutr 63, 51–66 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-023-03247-0

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