Gut microbiota in prodromal and established Parkinson's disease and relations to antibiotic exposure

Abstract

Gastrointestinal dysfunction affects up to 80% of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and may precede the onset of motor symptoms by years. Robustly demonstrated intestinal neuropathological, inflammatory, and microbiome changes in PD pose the obvious question whether the microbiota-gut-brain axis contributes to the initiation and/or progression of PD pathology and could thus be an early prodromal biomarker and target for precision medicine therapies. Recent research has not only linked gut microbiota to motor and non-motor symptoms of PD, but also to disease progression.