Balanced polyunsaturated fatty acids diet prevents the D-galactose-induced neuroinflammation and cognitive impairments

1. Neurosci Appl. 2026 Feb 12;5:106989. doi: 10.1016/j.nsa.2026.106989.
eCollection 2026.

Balanced polyunsaturated fatty acids diet prevents the D-galactose-induced
neuroinflammation and cognitive impairments.

Marniquet I(1), Dupont-Viratelle J(1), Crespo F(1), Séré A(1), Layé S(1),
Delpech JC(1).

Author information:
(1)University of Bordeaux, INRAE, Bordeaux INP, NutriNeuro, UMR 1286, F-33000,
Bordeaux, France.

The rapid increase of the population aged 65 and over is associated with a
higher prevalence of people suffering from cognitive functions alterations.
Those impairments are partly due to environmental risk factors such as
nutrition. In this context, nutrition, and more specifically the ratio of
n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-6/n-3 PUFAs), has been extensively
studied in relation to cognitive impairment and showed a potential beneficial
effect on cognitive decline during aging. Clinical epidemiological studies
showed a positive association between the n-3 PUFA consumption and cognitive
abilities during aging. Preclinical studies have also demonstrated that dietary
n-3 PUFA deficiency disrupts spatial memory, and induces alterations in neuronal
functions and increased neuroinflammation, whereas dietary n-3 PUFA
supplementation had beneficial effects on cognitive abilities and
neuroinflammation in aged mice. Here we showed that a balanced n-6/n-3 PUFAs
precursors diet is sufficient to prevent the induction of accelerated aging
characteristics such as contextual memory deficits, the altered emotionality
status as well as the increased hippocampal neuroinflammation induced by
D-galactose injections in mice, involving the activation of the AGE-RAGE
pathway. These results highlight the protective effects of a balanced n-6/n-3
PUFAs precursors on accelerated aging induced inflammatory, cognitive and
emotional-like alterations.

© 2026 The Authors.

DOI: 10.1016/j.nsa.2026.106989
PMCID: PMC12930063
PMID: 41743419

Conflict of interest statement: In regards to the full research article entitled
“Balanced polyunsaturated fatty acids diet prevents the D-galactose-induced
neuroinflammation and cognitive impairments” submitted to your journal, I
declare no conflict of interest.

Auteurs Bordeaux Neurocampus