Yang Runjuan, Jia Mengqi, Xu Ying, Wu Zhenghua, Wu Dongying, Fan Guorong, Gui Yaxing
Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Department of Neurology, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Front Microbiol. 2025 Jul 29;16:1621468. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1621468. eCollection 2025.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a prevalent neurodegenerative disorder with complex pathogenesis and limited treatment options. The current reliance on clinical evaluation for diagnosis, due to the absence of reliable non-invasive methods, presents significant challenges. Traditional diagnostic approaches, including cerebrospinal fluid or blood sampling, are invasive, pose risks of infection, are costly, and often require complex procedures. Tongue coating sampling presents a non-invasive, cost-effective, and repeatable alternative, indicating that it could be a valuable tool for early detection and monitoring of PD, warranting further investigation. This study explores the feasibility of using tongue coating samples as a diagnostic tool for PD through microbiome analysis, with metabolomics data providing additional context and validation via machine learning models. A cohort of 36 PD patients and 31 controls was recruited. 16S rRNA sequencing was used for microbiome analysis, revealing significant alterations in the relative abundances of various microbial taxa, including Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria. Concurrent metabolomics analysis using UPLC-Q/TOF-MS revealed a decrease in palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) levels in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, and also showed reduced carnitine levels specifically in the severe Hoehn-Yahr (H-Y) stage and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) subgroups. These findings provide preliminary evidence suggesting a potential link between specific microbial alterations and PD progression, which may warrant further investigation. Additionally, the analysis indicates a correlation between certain microbial and metabolomic changes and the advancement of PD. Our results also suggest that tongue coating may serve as a potential non-invasive tool for PD diagnosis, with a particular emphasis on the combined role of the microbiome and metabolome in the pathogenesis of the disease.
帕金森病（PD）是一种常见的神经退行性疾病，其发病机制复杂，治疗选择有限。由于缺乏可靠的非侵入性方法，目前依靠临床评估进行诊断面临重大挑战。传统的诊断方法，包括脑脊液或血液采样，具有侵入性，存在感染风险，成本高昂，且通常需要复杂的程序。舌苔采样提供了一种非侵入性、经济高效且可重复的替代方法，表明它可能是早期检测和监测帕金森病的有价值工具，值得进一步研究。本研究通过微生物组分析探索了使用舌苔样本作为帕金森病诊断工具的可行性，代谢组学数据通过机器学习模型提供了额外的背景信息和验证。招募了36名帕金森病患者和31名对照。使用16S rRNA测序进行微生物组分析，揭示了各种微生物类群相对丰度的显著变化，包括厚壁菌门、拟杆菌门和放线菌门。使用超高效液相色谱-四极杆/飞行时间质谱联用仪（UPLC-Q/TOF-MS）进行的同步代谢组学分析显示，帕金森病（PD）患者的棕榈酰乙醇酰胺（PEA）水平降低，并且还显示出肉碱水平在严重的 Hoehn-Yahr（H-Y）期和轻度认知障碍（MCI）亚组中尤其降低。这些发现提供了初步证据，表明特定的微生物改变与帕金森病进展之间可能存在潜在联系，这可能值得进一步研究。此外，分析表明某些微生物和代谢组学变化与帕金森病的进展之间存在相关性。我们的结果还表明，舌苔可能作为帕金森病诊断的潜在非侵入性工具，特别强调微生物组和代谢组在该疾病发病机制中的联合作用。
