Parkinson’s linked to gut bacteria

Coronal view of a human brain in Parkinson's disease

Sherbrooke Connectivity Imaging Lab | Getty Images
Coronal view of a human brain in Parkinson’s disease




“One can imagine one day, maybe in our lifetimes, patients will be prescribed drugs, and in the pills will be the bacteria that protect them from disease or even maybe treat their disease symptoms,” said Sarkis Mazmanian, one of the researchers on the team and professor of microbiology at the California Institute of Technology.

The scientists published their findings Thursday in the journal Cell.

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Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder where brain cells accumulate excessive amounts of a protein called alpha-synuclein and then die off. Patients lose motor function, experience tremors and shaking, and suffer other physical and mental effects. One million people in the U.S. and up to 10 million worldwide suffer from the condition. It is considered the world’s second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s.

It rarely runs in families; instead it appears to be influenced by environmental factors.

Previous research has suggested connections between gut bacteria and Parkinson’s, as well as other diseases such as multiple sclerosis. But no research has shown exactly how the two might be related.

The researchers performed three different experiments that showed the link between the germs in the gut and the disease in the brain.








In some ways, Mazmanian finds the third experiment most telling.

“At first pass, what this tells you is that it is not the presence or absence of bacteria that matters, it is the types of bacteria that are there,” he said.

In other words, it could mean that the guts of Parkinson’s patients have certain bacteria that contribute to the disease, or that they lack certain beneficial bacteria that could help protect against the disease.

Samples of gut bacteria in Parkinson’s patients render this possible. They tend to have certain kinds of bacteria not found in healthy people, and they also lack others that are found in healthy people, Mazmanian noted.

Moving forward, Mazmanian said the team would like to identify specific bacteria that are helpful of harmful and understand how they might contribute to or prevent the disease, and what kinds of treatments might produce the microbiome that best protects against the disease.

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