Propagating Parkinson’s along the gut-brain axis

George Tetz and colleagues from the Human Microbiology Institute have found bacteriophages in the gut microbiome that they think contribute to Parkinson’s disease by traveling up the gut-brain axis.

The gut-brain axis is a network of cells that connects the enteric nervous system with the CNS. Mounting evidence connects that axis to human inflammatory and CNS diseases via the gut microbiome. For example, high intestinal permeability, or leaky gut, and intestinal inflammation due to microbial changes have been linked to the initiation of α-synuclein (SNCA) misfolding in the brain. While studies have investigated links between diseases and alterations in gut bacteria and fungi, phages had not previously been considered as human pathogens because their effects were thought to be limited to other microorganisms...