Fig. 6: KF-8 and Akkermansia muciniphila (AKK) ameliorate inflammatory cytokines in the blood and neuroinflammatory pathways in the hippocampus.

A–F Levels of 8-OHdG, CRP, GM-CSF, RANTES, IL-17A, and TNF-α in mouse serum were detected by ELISA (n = 5). G–M AKK and rice bran peptide regulate the mRNA expression of hippocampal pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, TNF-α, IL-1β) and senescence-associated factors (P16, P21, P53) as well as the neuronal transcription factor C-Fos (n = 3). N Protein levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IBA1, P16, P21, and P53 in the hippocampus were detected by western blotting, and the protein bands were quantitatively analyzed by Image J software (n = 6). O Volcano plot results of DESeq2 analysis for differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the hippocampus of AKK-VS-Control and AKK + KF-8-VS-Control mice (n = 3). P, Q Venn and heatmap comparisons of total transcriptome data (n = 3). R Pathway enrichment analysis of biological processes conducted using RNA sequencing. S, T Construction of PPI protein-protein interaction network diagrams with Cytoscape and the top five hub genes selected by the MCC plugin. U Levels of TNF in the hippocampus of mice from different groups (n = 3). DEGs were identified using DESeq2 (|log₂ fold change | > 2, adjusted P value < 0.01. One-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni post hoc tests was used to compare multiple groups. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, ns not significant.