Session Information
Date: Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Session Title: Physiology and Pathophysiology
Session Time: 1:15pm-2:45pm
Location: Les Muses, Level 3
Objective: Our main objective was to investigate dysbiosis of gut microbiota in a selected population of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients from center-south of Italy, examining the weight of confounders and predictors, to identify potential correlation with clinical phenotypes and therapy.
Background: In recent years, alterations of gut microbiota in PD has been corroborated with robust evidence. However, in PD far from established is a specific microbiota fingerprint, to what extent it correlates with clinical features and the role of confounders.
Method: 150 faecal samples were collected from 79 PD patients, enrolled by tight inclusion criteria, and 71 healthy controls, represented almost exclusively by cohabitants. Microbiota compositions was studied through 16rRNA amplicon sequencing and classified to taxonomic rank trough a bioinformatic analysis. For identifying differential abundant species between controls and patients, statistical analysis was performed considering the effect of potential confounders.
Results: The analysis of dietary/life habits allowed to recognize age, loss of weight and sex as confounding factors and PD-Status, age, Body Mass Index, “eat cereals”, “eat yoghurt” and “physical activity” as predictors. Lactobacillaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, families were significantly higher in feces of PD patients compared to controls, while Lachnospiraceae and Erysipelotrichaceaewere significantly reduced. Lachnospiraceae and Enterobacteriaceae family also correlate with disease severity (Hoehn & Yahr stage, UPDRS III), with a decreasing and an increasing trend, respectively. Predictive metagenomics indicated a significant variation of genes involved in metabolism of short chain fatty acids and aminoacids and lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis.
Conclusion: Our data confirmed a specific microbiota composition in Parkinson patients enrolled from center-south of Italy. Functional predictions suggest changes in different metabolic pathways favouring a pro-inflammatory environment and a reduction in physiological transmitters.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
R. Cerroni, D. Pietrucci, M. Conti, V. Unida, A. Farcomeni, M. Pierantozzi, NB. Mercuri, S. Biocca, A. Desideri, A. Stefani. Dysbiosis of Gut Microbiota in a selected population of Italian Parkinson’s Disease patients [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2019; 34 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/dysbiosis-of-gut-microbiota-in-a-selected-population-of-italian-parkinsons-disease-patients/. Accessed June 15, 2025.« Back to 2019 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/dysbiosis-of-gut-microbiota-in-a-selected-population-of-italian-parkinsons-disease-patients/