Associations of equol-producing status with white matter lesion and amyloid-β deposition in cognitively normal elderly Japanese.

Introduction: Equol, a metabolite of a soy isoflavone transformed by the gut microbiome, is anti-oxidant and anti-amyloidogenic. We assessed the associations of equol with white matter lesion normalized to total brain volume (WML%) and amyloid beta (Aβ) deposition.

Methods: From 2016 to 2018, 91 cognitively normal elderly Japanese aged 75 to 89 underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography using C-Pittsburgh compound-B.