Clinical and metabolic response to probiotic administration in people with Parkinson's disease: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Summary Background & aims The investigation was done to assess the impacts of probiotic supplementation on movement and metabolic parameters in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods The study is randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, which was done in sixty people with PD. Individuals were randomly divided into two groups in order to take either 8 × 10 9  CFU/day probiotic or placebo (n = 30 each group) that lasted 12 weeks. The Movement Disorders Society-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) was recorded at pre- and post-intervention. Results Compared with the placebo, consuming probiotic decreased MDS-UPDRS (−4.8 ± 12.5 vs. +3.8 ± 13.0, P = 0.01). Probiotic supplementation also reduced high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (−1.6 ± 2.5 vs. +0.1 ± 0.3 mg/L, P  Conclusions Our study evidenced that 12 weeks of probiotic consumption by individuals with PD had useful impacts on MDS-UPDRS and few metabolic profiles. Registered under ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier no. http://www.irct.ir : IRCT2017082434497N4.