Gut microbes may one day help doctors identify Parkinson’s disease risk long before symptoms appear, according to a study funded by the Medical Research Council and led by researchers at University College London. The findings, published on 20 April 2026, suggest that people with Parkinson’s disease and healthy individuals carrying a genetic risk variant have a distinctive gut microbiome profile that could support earlier intervention.
Distinct microbial patterns found in patients and high-risk participants
The research team analysed clinical and faecal data from participants in the UK and Italy, including 271 people with Parkinson’s disease, 43 carriers of the GBA1 variant with no clinical symptoms, and 150 healthy controls. They found that more than a quarter of the microbes making up the gut microbiome — 176 different species — differed in abundance between people with Parkinson’s disease and the healthy control group.
The pattern was especially notable in people with more advanced Parkinson’s disease. The researchers also found that 142 species differed consistently when comparing healthy controls with participants carrying the GBA1 gene variant, even though those carriers had not yet developed symptoms. In the study, the microbiome of genetically at-risk individuals appeared to sit between that of healthy participants and people already diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
Possible route to earlier testing and prevention
Researchers said the results could help form the basis of a test to identify people at risk of developing Parkinson’s disease before symptoms begin. They also suggested the findings may open the door to prevention strategies focused on the gut, including dietary changes or medication designed to alter the bacterial population.
Professor Anthony Schapira of UCL said the work strengthens the evidence linking gut health and Parkinson’s disease, and points to the need for very early detection methods. Co-lead author Professor Stanislav Dusko Ehrlich said gut microbiome analysis could help identify people at risk so that advice on reducing risk, including dietary adjustments, might be offered earlier.
The study also examined dietary habits and found some evidence that participants with a more balanced and varied diet were less likely to have gut microbiomes suggesting elevated Parkinson’s risk. The researchers said that could indicate a role for diet modification in prevention, although the findings still need to be developed further before any clinical use.
The team said its findings were supported by additional cohorts from the UK, Korea and Turkey, totalling another 638 people with Parkinson’s disease and 319 healthy controls. The study was also supported by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
For more details, see the source report from UKRI at UKRI’s MRC news page.
