Abstract
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders. PD patients suffer from gastrointestinal dysfunctions and alterations of the autonomous nervous system, especially its part in the gut wall, i.e., the enteric nervous system (ENS). Such alterations and functional gastrointestinal deficits often occur years before the classical clinical symptoms of PD appear. Until now, only little is known about PD-associated changes in gut microbiota composition and their potential implication in PD development. In order to increase knowledge in this field, fecal samples of 34 PD patients and 25 healthy, age-matched control persons were investigated. Here, the V4 and V5 hypervariable region of bacterial 16S rRNA genes was PCR-amplified and sequenced using an Ion Torrent PGM platform. Within the PD group, we observed a relative decrease in bacterial taxa which are linked to health-promoting, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective or other beneficial effects on the epithelial barrier, such as Faecalibacterium and Fusicatenibacter. Both taxa were lowered in PD patients with elevated levels of the fecal inflammation marker calprotectin. In addition, we observed an increase in shares of the Clostridiales family XI and their affiliated members in these samples. Finally, we found that the relative abundances of the bacterial genera Peptoniphilus, Finegoldia, Faecalibacterium Fusicatenibacter, Anaerococcus, Bifidobacterium, Enterococcus, and Ruminococcus were significantly influenced by medication with L-dopa and entacapone, respectively. Our data confirm previously reported effects of COMT inhibitors on the fecal microbiota of PD patients and suggest a possible effect of L-dopa medication on the relative abundance of several bacterial genera.
Highlights
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders
Following exclusion of sequences that were present in less than 10% of all samples, 12,935 Operational taxonomic units (OTU) affiliated with
L-dopa medication showed a significance in the Χ2-test (p = 0.048) and a medium strong association with the Hoehn–Yahr stage
Summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders. So far, there is no causal treatment for PD that is able to halt the neurodegenerative process.[1]. Increasing evidence indicates a difference in fecal microbiota composition between PD and healthy controls, irrespective of the applied method.[17,22,30,31,32] The methods used so far were quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) to detect highly abundant bacterial taxa,[17] pyrosequencing of the V4 variable region of the 16S rRNA gene[14] and Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the V1 and V2 region[32] or V4 region.[22] Other studies addressed the microbial and viral gut metagenome in the early stage of PD33 in L-dopa naïve patients with shotgun sequencing methods.[34] Correlations between a medication with entacapone and the (relative). Ctrl differences in fecal microbiota composition in PD patients compared to suitable controls is a first step to elucidate whether the gut microbiota might play any functional role in PD pathogenesis Such differences might depend on factors such as the type of PD medication. This may increase our knowledge on the aetiopathogenesis of PD
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
