Xu et al. investigated the mechanism of patchouli alcohol (PA) in alleviating AD-related cognitive deficits and found that PA relieves gut microbiota imbalance, inhibits the C/EBPβ/AEP pathway, and reduces Aβ plaque deposition, tau hyperphosphorylation, and neuroinflammation (Xu et al., 2023). The gene discussed is MAPT; the disease is Alzheimer disease.