Enriched environmental conditions modify the gut microbiome composition and fecal markers of inflammation in Parkinson’s disease

Background Recent findings suggest an implication of the gut microbiome in Parkinson’s disease patients. Parkinson’s disease onset and progression has also been linked with various environmental factors such as physical activity, exposure to pesticides, head injury, nicotine, and dietary factors. Objectives In this study, we used a transgenic mouse model overexpressing the complete human SNCA genes modeling familial and sporadic forms of Parkinson’s disease to study whether environmental conditions such as standard versus enriched environment changes the gut microbiome and influences disease progression. Methods We performed 16S rRNA DNA sequencing on fecal samples for microbiome analysis and studied fecal inflammatory calprotectin from the colon of control and transgenic mice kept under standard environment and enriched environment conditions. Results The overall composition of the gut microbiota was not changed in transgenic mice compared with wild-type in enriched environment, however, individual gut bacteria at genus level such as Lactobacillus sp. were significantly changed in transgenic mice. Furthermore, enriched environment significantly reduced colon fecal inflammatory calprotectin protein in wild-type and transgenic enriched environment conditions compared to standard environment. Conclusion Our data suggest that enriched social environment has a positive effect on the induction of SNCA mediated inflammation in the intestine by changing anti-inflammatory gut bacteria.