Microbiome-based biomarkers to guide personalized microbiome-based therapies for Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

We address an unmet challenge in Parkinson's disease: the lack of biomarkers to identify the right patients for the right therapy, which is a main reason clinical trials for disease modifying treatments have all failed. We present the gut microbiome as a target for treatment and introduce microbiome-based biomarkers to guide personalized treatments. We show that not all persons with PD have a dysbiotic microbiome, and not all dysbiotic PD microbiomes have the same features. We have developed an intuitive and easily modifiable method to identify the optimal candidates for microbiome-based clinical trials, and subsequently, for treatments that are personalized for each individual's dysbiotic features. We demonstrate the method for PD. The concept, and the method, is generalizable for any disease with a microbiome component.