WCN 2021 | Microbiome to elucidate Parkinson’s disease

Paul Wilmes, PhD, Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, discusses how integrated multi-omic analyses combined with human organ-on-chip systems can improve the current understanding of the role of the microbiome in neurological diseases with the potential for the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic applications, particularly in Parkinson’s disease. The multi-omic analyses have found a few differences between Parkinson’s disease patients and healthy individuals, particularly in one small molecule increased in Parkinson’s disease patients and linked to specific taxa. This small molecule produced in the gut is capable of triggering all of the molecular hallmarks of the disease and, in an in vivo mouse model of Parkinson’s disease, can trigger behavioral changes. Additionally, it is important to understand the mechanistic processes at a cellular and molecular level, which is possible using human organ-on-chip systems. This interview took place during the XXV World Congress of Neurology.