Abstract: Currently, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease with the largest number of patients and the widest range of impact in the world, and its pathogenic mechanism has not yet been fully understood. Emerging evidence has shown that the gut microbiota can regulate the development and health of the brain via gut-brain axis. Probiotics are a group of live microorganisms that maintain intestinal microecological balance. In recent years, probiotics and their metabolites or probiotic fermented foods have received great attention for their role in alleviating neurodegenerative diseases including AD. Herein, this paper reviews the progress in the past five years in the application of single-strain or multiple-strain probiotics, probiotic fermented foods, and probiotics combined with other drugs for alleviating AD, and expounds the relevant mechanisms and existing problems. We expect this review to provide new ideas for the application of probiotics in the prevention and treatment of AD.

Key words: probiotics; Alzheimer’s disease; gut-brain axis; gut microecology; immunoregulation