Hericium erinaceus Extract Exerts Beneficial Effects on Gut–Neuroinflammaging–Cognitive Axis in Elderly Mice

The gut microbiome is a complex and unendingly changing community of bacteria that lives inside animals, including humans. Emerging evidence has proved that gut microbiome composition is associated with several human health outcomes, which include cognitive performance. However, few epidemiological studies exist, and research in this field is still ongoing and developing. The current article suggests that oral consumption of an edible medicinal mushroom named H. erinaceus promotes the growth of beneficial gut bacteria, parallelly reducing pathogen bacteria, therefore revealing its prebiotic effect. Additionally, this oral supplementation had a positive impact on cognitive function, also leading to a decrease in inflammation in the hippocampus, a brain area crucially involved in memory formation and consolidation. Overall, these findings support the notion that changing the gut microbiome composition through nutrition modulation could trigger longevity-promoting effects, protecting from age-related cognitive decline.