Nature: Intestinal flora is closely related to the onset of Parkinson's disease

Humans, like other mammals, are occupied by trillions of microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi, collectively known as commensal flora
.
In a sense, "man" is a multi-complex complex of human body and symbiotic flora
.

There are a large number of microorganisms parasitized in the human intestine, and these gut microbiota affect human obesity, enteritis, autoimmune diseases, response to cancer treatment drugs, and even affect human lifespan
.
A growing body of evidence sheds light on the extent to which humans are interdependent with these gut microbiota, and also highlights the importance of the
brain-gut axis.

Parkinson's Disease (PD), a complex neurodegenerative disease, is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the world, after Alzheimer's disease (AD), affecting about 1%-2% of people
aged 65 and older.
As the global population ages, the prevalence of Parkinson's disease will increase
significantly.

Currently, more than 6 million people worldwide have Parkinson's disease, and about 60,000 new patients are diagnosed
each year.
The loss of dopamine-producing neurons in the patient's brain affects movement and cognition, leading to symptoms
such as tremor, muscle stiffness, confusion and dementia.
In fact, Parkinson's disease is a multisystem disease in which the earliest symptom is constipation, which may appear more than a decade earlier than
motor symptoms.
In addition, Parkinson's disease has a high degree of heterogeneity and may be caused
by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

Recently, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham published a research paper
in the journal Nature Communications entitled: Metagenomics of Parkinson's disease implicates the gut microbiome in multiple disease mechanisms.

This large-scale study found a general imbalance in the composition of the gut microbiota of people with Parkinson's disease, and that these gut microbiota are involved in multiple pathways
of Parkinson's disease onset.
The research team performed metagenomic analysis of the fecal microbiome directly from Parkinson's disease patients (490 people) and healthy controls (234 people) and found that Parkinson's disease metagenomics are microbiome markers
that promote Parkinson's disease progression.
The research team analyzed 257 of these gut microbes and showed that 84 (33%) of them were associated with
Parkinson's disease.
Of the 84 intestinal microorganisms associated with Parkinson's disease, 55 were abundant in the gut of Parkinson's patients, and 29 were abundantly low
.
This suggests that a prevalent gut microbial imbalance
is prevalent in patients with Parkinson's disease.
Specifically, in patients with Parkinson's disease, Bifidobacterium dentium abundance increased 7-fold, Actinomyces oris abundance increased 6.
5-fold, and Streptococcus mutans increased 6-fold
.
The intestinal Roseburia intestinalis abundance decreased by a factor of 7.
5 and that of Blautia wexlerae by a factor of 5
.
Overall, 36% of Parkinson's-associated gut microbiota abundance changes more than 2-fold
.
Corresponding author Haydeh Payami said the study established the largest high-resolution database of the Parkinson's disease gut microbiome to date, which will be freely available to promote scientific openness
.
This study demonstrates the pervasive gut microbial imbalance in patients with Parkinson's disease, which creates the environment
for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease.
He also said that this is an exciting study, and that more information will be revealed
as sample sizes increase, as well as metagenomic studies conducted by other research teams.
It is expected that in the near future, more tools and analytical capabilities will be used to explore the heterogeneity of Parkinson's disease, search for biomarkers, delve into its origin and development, and prevent, treat, and stop the occurrence and progression
of Parkinson's disease by regulating the microbiome.