Alterations of the gut virome in patients with Parkinson's disease.

The gut virome in PD patients exhibited increased richness and diversity compared to healthy subjects.

• Analysis was performed on metagenomic datasets from two independent cohorts including 79 PD patients and 79 controls.
• Both alpha diversity metrics (richness and diversity) were elevated in PD patients relative to healthy subjects.
• This is described as the first study to characterize the gut virome profile in PD.

A total of 640 viral operational taxonomic units (vOTUs) differed in abundance between PD patients and healthy subjects.

• The 640 differentially abundant vOTUs were identified by reanalyzing publicly available metagenomic datasets.
• Some vOTUs were enriched in PD patients while others were enriched in healthy subjects (HS).
• The study used two independent cohorts to identify these differences.

Siphoviridae and Myoviridae were more abundant in PD patients compared to healthy controls.

• Both Siphoviridae and Myoviridae are bacteriophage families (members of Caudovirales).
• These findings were derived from reanalysis of publicly available metagenomic datasets from two independent cohorts.
• The increased abundance of these phage families suggests potential alterations in bacteriophage-host dynamics in PD.

Viruses enriched in PD or healthy subjects preferentially infect bacterial hosts that produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs).

• A variety of viruses from both PD-enriched and HS-enriched groups were found to target SCFA-producing bacteria.
• This finding suggests a potential mechanism linking gut virome alterations to PD pathogenesis through SCFA metabolism.
• SCFA-producing bacteria are known to play roles in gut health and neurological function.

Specific viral functional orthologs showed notable differences in prevalence between PD-enriched and HS-enriched vOTUs.

• Thymidylate synthase (K00560) displayed notable differences in prevalence between PD-enriched and HS-enriched vOTUs.
• Integrases (K14059) also showed notable differences in prevalence between the two groups.
• These functional differences suggest distinct viral biological activities associated with PD versus healthy states.

A random forest model using the top 22 most significant vOTUs achieved an AUC of 0.822 in distinguishing PD patients from healthy controls.

• The model was constructed using the top 22 most significant vOTUs as features.
• The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.822, which the authors describe as demonstrating 'strong performance.'
• This diagnostic model was based on gut virome data from 79 PD patients and 79 healthy controls across two independent cohorts.
• The result suggests potential utility of gut virome profiling as an early diagnostic strategy for PD.