Objective: To systematically analyze the potential therapeutic mechanism of licochalcone A against Alzheimer's disease by network pharmacology. Methods: The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) and GeneCards database were screened, and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis were performed on the overlapping genes of Alzheimer's disease and licochalcone A, followed by Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) analysis and visualization. Results: A total of 64 potential overlapping targets between licochalcone A and Alzheimer's disease were identified, among which CASP3, AKT1 and BCL2 were core targets with high degree values. The annotated genes were enriched in signal transduction, metabolism and immune system. Conclusion: Licochalcone A may exert anti-Alzheimer's disease effects by targeting and regulating inflammatory response, participating in biological processes such as signal transduction and energy metabolism, which provides a theoretical basis for the development of multi-target drugs for Alzheimer's disease.

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The growing prevalence of metabolic disorders, including obesity, type-2 diabetes, and hypertension among adolescents, poses a significant global health challenge. While pharmacological treatments exist, their limitations necessitate safer, dietary-based strategies. The wheat aleurone layer, a component of the wheat kernel situated between the endosperm and bran, is densely packed with bioactive compounds such as arabinoxylan, β-glucans, minerals, and phenolic acids. This review synthesizes current evidence on its nutritional composition and physiological mechanisms relevant to metabolic health. Studies indicate that aleurone-derived arabinoxylan effectively modulates gut microbiota, enhances short-chain fatty acid production, and mitigates postprandial glycemic spikes without causing severe gastrointestinal distress common with other fibers. Furthermore, its high antioxidant capacity and mineral profile contribute to improved lipid metabolism and insulin sensitivity, as demonstrated in animal models and adult human trials. Although clinical data specific to adolescent populations remain scarce, the physicochemical properties of aleurone layer suggest it is a promising functional ingredient. Future research should focus on developing palatable, low-glycemic index food products tailored for younger demographics to address the early onset of metabolic diseases.

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Modifiable lifestyle factors influence the structure of the gut microbiome; however, most studies have isolated individual exposures and focused on continuous diversity indices rather than categorical community phenotypes. As a result, the relative weights of various coexisting lifestyle habits in determining the composition of the dominant intestinal bacterial genus are still unknown. Genus-level relative abundance data and self-reported lifestyle metadata for 336 adults from the American Gut Project were analysed. Remove unclassified taxa and re-normalise abundances, then assign a dominant genus to each sample based on its most abundant taxon. Associations with the frequency of alcohol consumption, exercise frequency, sleep duration, dietary pattern, antibiotic use history, body mass index and demographic factors were analysed using univariate tests with False Discovery Rate (FDR) correction, multinomial logistic regression, PERMANOVA, redundancy analysis and differential abundance tests. Dataset-of-origin was explicitly modelled to rule out technical batch effects. After controlling for batch effects in a multivariate model, alcohol consumption frequency (importance = 0.0230), exercise frequency (importance = 0.0209) and sleep duration (importance = 0.0168) were the top two modifiable predictors of dominant genus classification. Only the frequency of alcohol consumption was significantly associated with the global community structure (PERMANOVA, F = 2.03, p = 0.01, FDR = 0.04), and Bacteroides showed a graded increase in relative abundance from 10% for never-drinkers to 39% for daily drinkers. Exercise frequency was positively correlated with increased Rothia abundance (FDR = 0.039). The dataset identifier was a relatively strong overall predictor of the dominant genus assignment (importance = 0.0462) and exceeded the combined contribution of all lifestyle variables. Alcohol consumption, exercise and sleep duration are all independently associated with the composition of dominant intestinal bacteria in adults after controlling for technical batch effects. The above results present new high-priority targets for microbiome modification and also indicate that explicit batch correction must be performed during aggregated microbiome analysis.

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