# Microbiome, Environment, and Parkinsons disease (MEP) PESTICIDE EXPOSURES AND THE GUT MICROBIOME IN PARKINSONS DISEASE

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2021 · $651,766

## Abstract

Abstract.
The human microbiome has a major role in the uptake and handling of nutrients, medications, and toxins; and is of great
immune system relevance. Evidence is mounting that it can affect aspects of neurologic function, brain activity, and
behavior via the ‘gut-brain-axis’. New propositions are that environmental exposures such as pesticides, metals, and
air pollution influence the microbiome and the human immune system and that the microbiome plays a role in
Parkinson’s disease (PD). Here we propose the novel hypothesis that a) the microbiome is affected by chronic
environmental exposures, specifically pesticides; and b) an altered gut microbiome composition or function contributes
to the progression of neurodegeneration in PD. PD - a progressive neurodegenerative disease – has various non-motor
symptoms including gastro-intestinal (GI) features such as constipation and gastroparesis. Its pathologic hallmarks,
namely Lewy bodies and α-synuclein aggregates, have been found in the gut’s enteric nervous system of PD patients
along with inflammation. The role of the gut microbiome in PD is underexplored and no study has addressed
whether toxins influence neurodegeneration via the microbiome. We previously developed a resource to investigate
long-term exposure to pesticides in humans, i.e. a geographic information system (GIS) model based on records from the
California state pesticide use reporting (PUR) system. Capitalizing on our unique PUR exposure assessment tool and
the Parkinson's Disease Susceptibility Genes and Pesticides Study (PEG; R01 ES-010544) resources, we have joined forces
with Drs. Mayer and Jacob (UCLA Division of Digestive Diseases) - experts in brain-gut connection microbiome research -
and propose to analyze the gut microbiome of 400 PD patients and 600 (200 age-matched household & 400 age-sex
matched community) controls using 16S ribosomal RNA to assess relative abundance of microbiota. Specifically, we will
assess composition and function (using the predicted metagenome) in pesticide exposed vs. non-exposed controls and
PD patients of different progression phenotypes. We will newly enroll 200 new-onset, of these 100 medication naïve
(MN) PD patients, to collect data on exposures, gut motility indicators, and fecal samples for metabolomics and culture
based experiments (before and after starting PD medications); assess differences in relative abundances of microbes
over time using 16S ribosomal RNA and shotgun metagenomics and conduct metabolomics (blood or stool) analyses for
new onset PD patients (twice, longitudinally) and their household controls. We combine for this research our extensive
expertise in pesticide exposure assessment and studying PD progression in community-based patients, an exceptionally
well-characterized population living in a heavily pesticide exposed region, with the expertise of our UCLA GI team in
brain-gut axis research and the resources of the UCLA microbiome core. Our resources provide a stro...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10240329
- **Project number:** 5R01ES031106-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Beate R. Ritz
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $651,766
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-08-15 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10240329

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10240329, Microbiome, Environment, and Parkinsons disease (MEP) PESTICIDE EXPOSURES AND THE GUT MICROBIOME IN PARKINSONS DISEASE (5R01ES031106-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10240329. Licensed CC0.

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