Overview
- The UCL-led study, published Monday in Nature Medicine, identifies a gut microbiome signature linked to Parkinson's risk before symptoms.
- Researchers analyzed stool and clinical data from 271 patients, 43 symptom-free GBA1 carriers at high genetic risk, and 150 healthy controls.
- They found 176 bacterial species differed between patients and controls, and 142 of those also differed in carriers who showed an intermediate pattern.
- The pattern held in external cohorts including 638 more patients and 319 controls from the UK, Korea, and Turkey.
- Diet surveys tied more varied eating to a lower chance of the at-risk pattern, but the authors caution the work is observational and that any test or gut-focused prevention needs follow-up trials.