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By Pandora Dewan
Senior Science Reporter
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Scientists have discovered a groundbreaking potential treatment for Parkinson's disease from a very unlikely source: a stool transplant.
Parkinson's is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects over 8.5 million people worldwide, according to World Health Organization estimates. Its symptoms include balance problems, involuntary movements, a characteristic tremor, loss of smell, sleep disorders and cognitive impairment, which all gradually get worse over time.
The disease is thought to be caused by clumps of abnormally folded proteins that come together and damage the nerve cells in the brain that produce dopamine. These clumps are thought to form in the gut wall before reaching the brain via the vagus nerve, which acts as a bridge between the two.
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Today, there is no cure for Parkinson's, although treatments and surgeries can reduce the symptoms. Many of these treatments target the brain and nervous system, but researchers from Belgium's Ghent University Hospital have turned to a different site for a solution: the gut.
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Previous studies have shown that Parkinson's patients often have an altered gut microbiome—that is, the trillions of bacteria that reside in our guts—compared with healthy individuals. So what if we could modify these gut microbiomes to more closely resemble those of healthy individuals?
In a study, published in the online journal eClinicalMedicine, the Ghent University team conducted a 12-month clinical trial in which healthy donors donated their stool to early-stage patients with Parkinson's.
"After twelve months, participants who received the healthy donor stool transplant showed a significant improvement in their motor score, the most important measure for Parkinson's symptoms," the study's first author, Arnout Bruggeman, said in a statement. "Our results are really encouraging!"
Interestingly, the improvements in symptoms became more pronounced between the sixth and 12th month after the initial transplantation, suggesting potentially long-lasting effects of this treatment.
More research is needed to confirm whether these interventions can stop the progression of the disease, but these results are an encouraging step in the direction of future treatments.
"Our study provides promising hints that fecal microbial transplant can be a valuable new treatment for Parkinson's disease," Roosmarijn Vandenbroucke, one of the study's co-authors, said in a statement. "More research is needed, but it offers a potentially safe, effective, and cost-effective way to improve symptoms and quality of life for millions of people with Parkinson's disease worldwide."
If the idea of a stool transplant grosses you out, fear not: The same results could be achieved by isolating the bacterial species responsible for these improvements in symptoms. The only problem is, we don't yet know which species they are.
"Our next step is to obtain funding to determine which bacteria have a positive influence," co-author Debby Laukens said in a statement. "This could lead to the development of a 'bacterial pill' or other targeted therapy that could replace fecal microbial transplants in the future."
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