Evaluation of Gut Microbiota in Parkinson’s Disease using Gas Chromatography with Mass Spectrometric Detection

Abstract

The paper presents preliminary results of a comparative study assessing the gut microbiota in patients with Parkinson’s disease and the control group using the gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection. Sixteen patients with stage 3 Parkinson’s disease and 94 age-matched persons without Parkinson’s disease were examined. It was revealed that the total number of microbial markers in parietal intestinal microbiota in patients with Parkinson’s disease was increased by 43% compared with the control group. This increase is due to a 2-fold increase in the number of conditional-pathogenic flora, and at the same time there was a 2-fold decrease in the number of microbial markers of useful microflora. The obtained results may be regarded as preliminary and need to be assessed in a large cohort of patients with Parkinson’s disease. It is also necessary to assess the relationship between immune status and changes in microbiota, and to develop methods of correction of the revealed changes. Analysis of the efficiency of restoration of qualitative and quantitative composition of microbiota should be carried out using methods for the assessment of bioequivalence levodopa dose.