Your digestive tract is home to trillions of microorganisms. Interestingly, they have a message about your neurological future. Groundbreaking research has found that gut bacteria can act as an early warning sign of Parkinson’s disease. These signs appear years before tremors, stiffness, or other symptoms develop.A new study led by University College London (UCL) researchers found that people with Parkinson’s disease have a distinctive makeup of gut microbes. So do healthy individuals who are genetically at risk of Parkinson’s disease. The report is published in Nature Medicine.
What your gut says about your brain
The new findings could revolutionize how we approach Parkinson’s prevention and treatment. The researchers hope these findings could help develop tests to analyze a person’s risk of Parkinson’s disease. This way, people at high risk can be offered early support, potentially leading to new ways to prevent Parkinson’s by targeting the gut.“Parkinson’s disease is a major cause of disability worldwide, and the fastest-growing neurodegenerative disease in terms of prevalence and mortality. There is an urgent need to develop treatments that can stop or slow the disease’s progression. To enable both the research and eventual use of such treatments, we need to develop the means for very early detection of people who will, or are likely to, go on to develop the disease,” Professor Anthony Schapira (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology), lead investigator of the study, said in a release.He added, “In recent years there has been a growing recognition of the links between Parkinson’s disease—a brain disorder—and gut health. Here we have strengthened that evidence and shown that microbes in the gut can reveal signs of Parkinson’s and may be an early warning signal of Parkinson’s risk years before symptom onset.”
Why? gut microbiome is important
To understand the link between the gut microbiome and the risk of Parkinson’s disease, researchers at UCL collaborated with investigators at INRAE (Institut national de la recherche agronomique, France). Using a new method, they analyzed clinical and fecal data from study participants in the UK (at the Royal Free Hospital, London) and Italy. The participants included 271 people with Parkinson’s disease, 43 carriers of the GBA1 variant (a gene variant that can increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease by up to 30-fold) with no clinical symptoms, and 150 healthy control participants (as a comparison group).The results were striking. The researchers found that over a quarter of the gut microbes—176 different species—differed in abundance between those with Parkinson’s disease and the healthy control group. They also found that some microbes were common among those with Parkinson’s disease, while healthy individuals also had some in common. About 142 species were found at different levels when comparing healthy people to those with the GBA1 gene variant, even if they showed no symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.They noticed that the gut microbiome makeup of people with a genetic risk of Parkinson’s, but without any symptoms, resembled an intermediate pattern between healthy individuals and those with Parkinson’s.“For the first time, we identify bacteria in the gut of people with Parkinson’s that can also be found in those with a genetic risk for the disease, but before they develop symptoms. Importantly, these same changes can be found in a small proportion of the general population, which may put them at increased risk for Parkinson’s. This discovery opens the way not only to see if the bacteria are a way to identify those at risk of Parkinson’s, but also to see if changing the bacterial population, through dietary changes or medication, can reduce a person’s risk of Parkinson’s,” Professor Schapira added.They confirmed these findings by comparing the results with an additional cohort of people in the UK, Korea and Turkey, including 638 people with Parkinson’s disease and 319 healthy control participants.“Gut microbiome analysis can enable us to identify individuals who are at risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, so that we can suggest ways for them to reduce their own risk, such as through dietary adjustments,” co-lead author Professor Stanislav Dusko Ehrlich, honorary professor at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, said.These findings play a crucial role in how Parkinson’s disease could be detected earlier and potentially prevented through targeted interventions.Disclaimer: The information in this article is for educational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your diet or health routine.
