Does a pickle a day keep Alzheimer's away? Fermented food in Alzheimer's disease: A review.

Fermented food is commonly viewed as healthy, mostly due to its probiotic and digestion-enhancing properties and recently it has been examined with regard to the development of new therapeutic and preventive measures for Alzheimer's disease. Fermented food has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties and to alter the gut microbiota. However, the exact pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease is still unknown and its connections to systemic inflammation and gut dysbiosis, as potential targets of fermented food, require further investigation. Therefore, to sum up the current knowledge, this article reviews recent research on the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease with emphasis on the role of the gut-brain axis and studies examining the use of fermented foods. The analysis of the fermented food research includes clinical and preclinical in vivo and in vitro studies. The fermented food studies have shown promising effects on amyloid-ß metabolism, inflammation, and cognitive impairment in animals and humans. Fermented food has great potential in developing new approaches to Alzheimer's disease treatment.

Impact of surgical resection of butterfly glioblastoma on survival: a meta-analysis based on comparative studies.

Butterfly glioblastoma (bGBM) is a rare brain tumor that invades both hemispheres by crossing the corpus callosum. bGBM is associated with a dismal prognosis with a median survival time of a few months. Surgical resection is a rare treatment option due to the unfavorable location and assumed poor risk-to-benefit ratio. Therefore, a biopsy-alone approach is considered the main treatment option. This meta-analysis aimed to systematically evaluate whether resection of bGBM is associated with improved overall survival compared with biopsy alone. We searched three databases to find studies that compare resection with biopsy in 6-, 12- and 18-months overall survival in patients with bGBM. We calculated the pooled relative risk (RR) of mortality using a random-effects model. Five studies with 194 patients were included in the meta-analysis. Mortality was decreased for resection compared with biopsy at 6-months (RR 0.63 [95% CI 0.44-0.91]). No significant differences in overall survival were found at 12 (RR 0.76 [95% CI 0.50-1.14]) and 18-months (RR 0.84 [95% CI 0.56-1.26]). Surgical resection of bGBM is associated with an improved 6-months overall survival compared with biopsy alone. We have not found strong evidence supporting the superiority of resection over biopsy alone in overall survival at 12 and 18-months.