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Early Clues to Parkinson’s Disease Found in the Gut
Researchers have identified changes in gut bacteria that may signal the earliest stages of Parkinson’s disease in people who carry a genetic risk factor linked to the condition.
In a study published in Nature Medicine, scientists analysed stool samples and clinical data from people with Parkinson’s disease, healthy individuals, and symptom-free carriers of a variant of the GBA1 gene, which increases the risk of developing the disease.
The team found that more than a quarter of gut microbial species differed between healthy people and those with Parkinson’s disease. Strikingly, many of the same bacterial changes were also present in GBA1 carriers who had not yet developed symptoms. Their gut microbiomes appeared to sit midway between those of healthy individuals and people with Parkinson’s disease, and the extent of these changes was linked to subtle early symptoms.
Parkinson’s disease is usually diagnosed only after significant loss of brain cells has occurred. The discovery that gut microbiome changes may appear before noticeable symptoms raises the possibility of identifying people at higher risk earlier.
However, the researchers caution that the study cannot show whether these microbial changes predict future disease. Long-term studies are needed to determine their role in Parkinson’s development.
Original article: Menozzi, E., Ren, Y., Geiger, M. et al. Microbiome signature of Parkinson’s disease in healthy and genetically at-risk individuals. Nat Med (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-026-04318-5