The bacteria responsible for the development of gastric and duodenal ulcers may increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease, US scientists said at a meeting of the American Society of Microbiology.
According to BBC News, the gram-negative bacterium Helicobacter pylori may play an important role in the development of the disease in the elderly. Research conducted on mice suggests this. Six months after being infected with the bacterium, rodents aged about 55-65 years began to show symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, such as movement disorders or a decrease in dopamine levels in the brain.
Dr. Traci Testerman of Louisiana State University believes there is a high probability that the bacterium acts similarly to the human body, causing the production of chemicals that are toxic to the brain.
According to the researcher, H. pylori is able to appropriate cholesterol accumulated in the body and undergo chemical modification, resulting in the formation of a new compound. It turns out that this creature is deceptively similar to a toxin found in sago seeds and which is credited with causing symptoms of Parkinson’s disease among the inhabitants of the Micronesian island of Guam.
The bacteria were much more potent in older mice, which shows that aging, like humans, makes rodents more susceptible to parkinsonism-related changes, Dr. Testerman notes. Eliminating H. pylori in the late stage of Parkinson’s disease is no longer able to bring significant improvement, as some nerve cells are destroyed before the first symptoms appear, and as the disease progresses, more and more of them die. These neurons will not rebuild themselves anymore.
Dr. Kieran Breen of Parkinson’s UK emphasizes that these conclusions should be treated with some caution as the doses of bacteria that were administered to the test mice were relatively high. Previous tests have shown that bacteria can limit absorption of one of the medications used in patients, but there is no strong evidence yet that H. pylori actually contributed to the development of parkinsonism (PAP).