Gut Microbiome Imbalance and Neuroinflammation: Impact of <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 on Parkinson's Disease
Cristian Follmer
Abstract
Neurological manifestations in some coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients and the neuroinvasive potential of its causative agent, the newly discovered severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), have increasingly attracted the attention of the neuroscience community. Less obvious from a neurologic perspective is the impact of the gastrointestinal (GI) abnormalities caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, notably an imbalance of the gut microbiome (dysbiosis) and intestinal inflammation, on gut-brain axis FIG. Viral infection might promote gut dysbiosis and intestinal inflammation, which can lead to impaired mucosal integrity and release of LPS that, in turn, might stimulate the formation of deposits of aSyn in enteric nerves and neuroinflammation via microglial activation. Viral infection may also induce an increase in aSyn expression in enteric neurons as part of the immune response to the infection, contributing to the formation of aSyn aggregates that eventually may migrate from the intestine to the brain via the vagal nerve.