Association of Parkinson’s Disease With Microbes and Microbiological Therapy

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the most common movement disorder in the world, affecting 1–2 per 1,000 of the population. The main pathological changes of PD are damage of dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra of the central nervous system and formation of Lewy bodies. These pathological changes also occur in the intestinal tract and are strongly associated with changes in intestinal flora. By reviewing the research progress in PD and its association with intestinal flora in recent years, this review expounded the mechanism of action between intestinal flora and PD as well as the transmission mode of α - synuclein in neurons. In clinical studies, β diversity of intestinal flora in PD patients was found to change significantly, with Lactobacillusaceae and Verrucomicrobiaceae being significantly increased and Lachnospiraceae and Prevotellaceae being significantly decreased. In addition, a longer PD course was associated with fewer bacteria and probiotics producing short chain fatty acids, but more pathogenic bacteria. Moreover, the motor symptoms of PD patients may be related to Enterobacteriaceae and bacteria. Most importantly, catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitors and anticholinergic drugs could change the intestinal flora of PD patients and increase the harmful flora, whereas other anti-PD drugs such as levodopa, dopamine agonist, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and amantadine did not have these effects. Probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics treatment had some potential values in improving the constipation of PD patients, promoting the growth of probiotics, and improving the level of intestinal inflammation. At present, there were only a few case studies and small sample studies which have found certain clinical efficacy of fecal microbiome transplants. Further studies are necessary to elaborate the relationship of PD with microbes.

Gut brain axis: an insight into microbiota role in Parkinson’s disease

“…Furthermore, the fecal microbial community of PD has displayed a lower abundance of SCFA butyrate-producing bacteria that could be corrected by using prebiotics (Perez-Pardo et al 2017). This supports the potential clinical application of prebiotics in PD since their use has never been investigated in patients with PD (Chen et al 2021).…”

Hydrogen Sulfide Produced by Gut Bacteria May Induce Parkinson’s Disease

“…Advocating this view, it has been reported that the amount of butyrate correlate with the abundancies of bacteria of the genus Blautia and bacterial species such as Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Roseburia faecis [64]. An enrichment of the genera Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium in the fecal samples of PD patients has been reported in several studies [55,65]. The finding can be explained, at least partly, by the availability of these probiotics as commercial products.…”

“…Apparent cross-feeding takes place between gDSV and genus Akkermansia. In studies on fecal samples, the relative overgrowth of the genus Akkermansia is a common finding in PD patients [55,56,65]. Akkermansia muciniphila, a bacterium residing abundantly in the mucus layer of the large intestine releases sulfate in mucin fermentation, thus offering sulfate to the mucosa-associated SRB [72,73].…”

Gut Microbiota: A Novel Therapeutic Target for Parkinson’s Disease

“…Other bacterial metabolites such as SCFAs, especially butyrate, serve an important role in maintaining intestinal integrity, and a lack of SCFAs can increase intestinal permeability. The decreased SCFA-producing bacteria in PD patients can lead to disruption of the intestinal mucosal barrier, and this serves as a prerequisite for entry of a-synuclein into the ENS to maintain excessive a-synuclein expression or even promote its misfolding (117). Therefore, the altered gut microbiota profiles and their bacterial metabolites can influence a-synuclein expression, misfolding, and transportation in the early stage of PD, which can be used as potential targets to antagonize a-synuclein pathology.…”