How much progress have we made in understanding the link between our gut microbiome and neurodegeneration?
The field is still relatively young, but it has gained a lot of attention and momentum of late. This has been supported by the emergence of new technologies, especially advances in genomic sequencing and bioinformatics. We are now at a stage in the field where we can look into the basic biology of the microbiome and start asking questions about how it relates to diets, diseases, lifestyles and populations.
The connection to neurodegeneration is in its infancy. We have a few flashbulbs that have gone off in the dark, but we are far from having a clear picture. Our laboratory was one of the first to link Parkinson’s disease to the microbiome. This has gotten a lot of popular press, some of which has been hype and I worry about that long term because it makes promises to society that we don’t know yet if we can keep.
We are interested in learning whether the microbiome tells us anything that we can use to treat neurodegenerative conditions, and also to understand the causes of disease. am hopeful that future research advances may result in ways to improve the health of people suffering from neurodegeneration.
What is your take on claims made that certain probiotics or gut cleaning solutions can help people with Parkinson’s disease?
The knowledge just isn’t there to know what approach will be effective, there is no science behind most commercially available products. We understand so little about the biology of disease, let alone its connection to the microbiome, that anyone who tells you that they have evidence suggesting that they can target the microbiome to help treat any neurodegenerative condition, is guesswork at best.
However, probiotics that are sold commercially are generally safe, so there isn’t much harm being done. But long-term these approaches may not be viable and we need more evidence-based probiotics to validate the link between the microbiome and neurodegeneration.