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Journal of Neurology and Neurorehabilitation Research | Volume 4
November 04-05, 2019 | Melbourne, Australia
Neurology and Neurological Disorders
19th International Conference on
J Neurol Neurorehabil Res, Volume 4
Does the truth lie within the gut? Investigating the gut microbiome in an Australian
cohort of Parkinson’s disease patients
Jade Kenna1,2,3, Sarah McGregor 3, Malcolm Horne3,4, Alfred Tay5, Alexa Jefferson1 , Souyma Ghosh1,2, Frank
Mastaglia1,2, Megan Bakeberg1,2, Anastazja Gorecki1,2, Sue Walters1, Ryan Anderton1,2,5
1Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science, Australia
2University of Western Australia, Australia
3St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, Australia
4University of Melbourne, Australia
5University of Notre Dame Australia, Australia
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with an assortment
of difficult to recognize non-motor symptoms, including
gastrointestinal (GI) dysfunction. Recently, there have been
studies reporting the appearance of GI symptoms up to
two decades prior to motor symptom onset in patients. To
date, limited number of studies have reported an association
between an altered microbiota composition and PD. Despite
this emerging relationship, it remains to be seen if this
association exists in Australian patients with PD. This study
involved a multi-centre assessment and recruitment of 120
patients with diagnosed PD from St Vincent’s Movement
Disorders Clinic (Fitzroy, VIC), the Perron Institute Movement
Disorders Clinic (Nedlands, WA). The Movement Disorders
Society Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-
UPDRS) was used to determine disease severity, including
motor and non-motor symptoms. Global cognitive function
was measure using Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Exam-Revised
(ACE-R), and Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson’s disease
Assessment. In collaboration with the Marshall Centre
(UWA, WA), this study aimed to determine if the gut
microbial composition differed between PD patients and
age-matched healthy controls using targeted sequencing of
the V3 and V4 regions of 16s ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene.
Microbiome diversity, determined by operational taxonomic
units (OTUs) and relative abundance were examined for an
association with patient clinical assessment outcomes, using
a multivariate regression analysis.
Our current results identified that both relative abundance
and diversity of microbial OTUs were significantly different in
patientswith PDwhen compared tohealthy controls (p<0.05).
Specifically, Verrucomicrobia and Gammaproteobacterial
were both increased within PD. Within the patient cohort,
reduced microbial diversity was significantly associated with
elevated MDS-UPDRS III scores, and decreased quality of life.
This project provides the first comprehensive characterisation
of the microbial diversity and composition in an Australian
cohort of PD patients. The preliminary findings from this
study support previous results and show associations
between microbial diversity and patient clinical outcomes,
further exploring the gut-brain connection in the progression
and management of this disease.
Speaker Biography
Jade Kenna is currently in her second year of her PhD in Clinical
Neuroscience through the Medical School at The University of Western
Australia and The Perron Institute. Her PhD project is the first in
Australia to investigate the role of the gut microbiome in a cohort of
Parkinson’s disease patients from multiple locations around Australia.
She has experience presenting oral and poster presentations at national
and international conferences. She has been working as a research
assistant and laboratory demonstrator alongside completing her PhD
and has received Letters from the University’s Dean each semester for
outstanding teaching performance every semester. In addition, she
continues to volunteer for university events and charities, and assists in
organizing and operation of many events, such as the inaugural Perron
Institute Research Symposium.
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