Microbiome of Parkinson's Disease Patients Differs From Healthy Controls

[Wally]

Microbiome of Parkinson's Disease Patients Differs From Healthy Controls

Parkinson’s disease sufferers have a different microbiota in their intestines than their healthy counterparts, according to a study [conducted at the University of Helsinki]. Researchers are now trying to determine what the connection between intestinal microbes and Parkinson’s disease is.

To read more about this finding click on this link - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141211081120.htm

 

[adreno]

There seems to be a red line from gut dysbiosis to neuroinflammation in many disorders, probably including ME/CFS.

More reason to support the Microbiome Discovery Project

 

[Wally]

There seems to be a red line from gut dysbiosis to neuroinflammation in many disorders, probably including ME/CFS.

More reason to support the Microbiome Discovery Project

@adreno,
Here is an article that you might be interested in reading that gives some insight into why researchers may be having difficulty in getting government funding in the U.S. to support microbiome projects. See, "Microbiome research goes without a home" at http://www.nature.com/news/microbiome-research-goes-without-a-home-1.13470

 

[Wally]

@adreno,
Another study that helps put in perspective why Lipkin's proposed Microbiome Discovery Project for ME/CFS (using "high-throughput DNA sequencing" to hunt for pathogens) has so much potential to unlock keys to this illness, as well as other neuro/endocrine/immune illnesses. See, "Metagenomic analysis of double-stranded DNA viruses in healthy adults" - http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/s12915-014-0071-7.pdf .

 

[Gijs]

Perhaps the differences in bacteria in the intestines of patients is caused by medication and has no causation.

 

[wastwater]

I hope the microbiome project will look at the consistency of the gut tissue and possibly the genetic make up

 

[snowathlete]

Perhaps the differences in bacteria in the intestines of patients is caused by medication and has no causation.

Potentially. I haven't looked, but obviously if they were on medications then that could have potentially altered gut flora. Depends on the drug absorption, and what the drugs do, but I suspect we don't know much about how different drugs impact gut flora at the moment. Hopefully the study considered these issues and ideally picked people that havent been on medications yet, or tried to measure the potential impact of different medications.

The apparent correlation between Enterobacteriaceae and disease severity suggests this could be a valuable insight into the disease though, regardless of whether medications effects on gut flora have been considered yet or not.