Characterization of the intestinal microbiota duringinfection in a mouse model of infection-triggered Parkinson's disease.

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that has been shown to be influenced by the intestinal milieu. The gut microbiota is altered in PD patients, and murine studies have begun suggesting a causative role for the gut microbiota in progression of PD. We have previously shown that repeated infection with the intestinal murine pathogenresulted in the development of PD-like pathology inmice compared to wild-type littermates. This addendum aims to expand this work by characterizing the gut microbiota duringinfection in ourPD model. We observed little disturbance to the fecal microbiota diversity both between infection timepoints and betweenand wild-type control littermates. However, the level of short-chain fatty acids appeared to be altered over the course of infection with butyric acid significantly increasing inmice and isobutyric acid increasing in wild-type mice.