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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 28, 2025; 31(48): 111301
Published online Dec 28, 2025. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i48.111301
Published online Dec 28, 2025. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i48.111301
Molecular links between inflammatory bowel disease and Alzheimer’s disease through immune signaling and inflammatory pathways
Siva Sundara Kumar Durairajan, Abhay Kumar Singh, Supriti Patnaik, Molecular Mycology and Neurodegenerative Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Tiruvarur 610005, India
Siva Sundara Kumar Durairajan, School of Biomedical Sciences, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Shahitha M Sulaiman, Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Tiruvarur 610005, Tamil Nadu, India
Senthilkumar Krishnamoorthi, Ashok Iyaswamy, Mr. & Mrs Ko Chi-Ming Centre for Parkinson’s Disease Research, School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong 999077, China
Ashok Iyaswamy, Department of Biochemistry, Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore 641021, Tamil Nadu, India
Balachandar Vellingiri, Department of Zoology, School of Basic Sciences, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda 151401, Punjab, India
Chuan-Bin Yang, The First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Techno
Leonard L Williams, Center for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, The North Carolina Research Campus, Kannapolis, NC 28081, United States
Author contributions: Durairajan SSK, Singh AK and Sulaiman SM drafted the manuscript; Durairajan SSK, Singh AK, Sulaiman SM, Patnaik S, Krishnamoorthi S, Iyaswamy A, Vellingiri B, Yang CB and Williams LL reviewed the literature; Durairajan SSK conceived the idea and coordinated the manuscript; Durairajan SSK, Singh AK and Sulaiman SM and Williams LL approved the final version of the article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest relevant to the content of this manuscript.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Siva Sundara Kumar Durairajan, PhD, Professor, Molecular Mycology and Neurodegenerative Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Neelakudi, Tiruvarur 610005, India. d.sivasundarakumar@cutn.ac.in
Received: June 30, 2025
Revised: September 17, 2025
Accepted: November 10, 2025
Published online: December 28, 2025
Processing time: 182 Days and 18.1 Hours
Revised: September 17, 2025
Accepted: November 10, 2025
Published online: December 28, 2025
Processing time: 182 Days and 18.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This review provides evidence regarding the molecular connections between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This interaction is facilitated mainly through immune signaling and inflammatory processes through the gut-brain axis. In IBD, chronic inflammation of the gut facilitates systemic inflammation, which may breach the blood-brain barrier and trigger neuroinflammation, amyloid-β accumulation, and cognitive impairment. The common mechanisms are the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, cytokine signaling dysregulation, and mitochondrial dysfunction. By inhibiting IBD-related inflammation via drugs or by modulating the microbiota, an approach based on neuroprotection can slow the progression of AD.