TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bedarf, Janis
AU  - Romano, Stefano
AU  - Heinzmann, Silke Sophie
AU  - Duncan, Anthony
AU  - Traka, Maria H
AU  - Ng, Duncan
AU  - Segovia-Lizano, Daniella
AU  - Simon, Marie-Christine
AU  - Narbad, Arjan
AU  - Wüllner, Ullrich
AU  - Hildebrand, Falk
TI  - A prebiotic dietary pilot intervention restores faecal metabolites and may be neuroprotective in Parkinson's Disease.
JO  - npj Parkinson's Disease
VL  - 11
IS  - 1
SN  - 2373-8057
CY  - [London]
PB  - Springer Nature
M1  - DZNE-2025-00503
SP  - 66
PY  - 2025
AB  - Current treatment of Parkinson's Disease (PD) remains symptomatic, and disease-modifying approaches are urgently required. A promising approach is to modify intestinal microbiota and key metabolites of bacterial fermentation: short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), which are decreased in PD. A prospective, controlled pilot study (DRKS00034528) was conducted on 11 couples (PD patient plus healthy spouse as control (CO)). Participants followed a 4-week diet rich in dietary fibre, including intake of the prebiotic Lactulose. Gut metagenomes, faecal and urinary metabolites, and clinical characteristics were assessed. The dietary intervention significantly augmented faecal SCFA and increased Bifidobacteria spp., reducing PD-related gastrointestinal symptoms. The pre-existing bacterial dysbiosis in PD (depletion of Blautia, Dorea, Erysipelatoclostridium) persisted. Bacterial metabolite composition in faeces and urine positively changed with the intervention: Brain-relevant gut metabolic functions involved in neuroprotective and antioxidant pathways, including S-adenosyl methionine, glutathione, and inositol, improved in PD. These promising results warrant further investigation in larger cohorts.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:40180909
C2  - pmc:PMC11968880
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s41531-025-00885-5
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/277883
ER  -