In the journal Science Advances, an international team of scientists with the participation of Polish researchers published the results of research, which shows that the bacterium Porphyromonas gingivalis may be responsible for developing Alzheimer’s disease.

So far, it has been known that this bacterium causes primarily gum disease, is associated with atherosclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The research described in the publication was financed by the National Science Center under the OPUS 12 grant. The Polish team worked under the guidance of Prof. Jan Potempa from the Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology of the Jagiellonian University.He was one of the three main authors of the publication. The other authors are Dr Piotr Mydel, Dr Małgorzata Benedyk, Agata Marczyk, Karina Adamowicz and Annelie Hellvard.
See the article in “Science Advances”:
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/1/eaau3333