• Seok Jong Chung, John Hoon Rim, Dajeong Ji, Sangwon Lee, Han Soo Yoo, Jin Ho Jung, KyoungWon Baik, Yonghoon Choi, Byoung Seok Ye, Young H Sohn, Mijin Yun, Sang-Guk Lee, and Phil Hyu Lee.
• Department of Neurology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea; Department of Neurology, Yongin Severance Hospital, Yonsei University Health System, Yongin, South Korea.
• Nutrition. 2021 Mar 1; 83: 111090.

ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate the potential of using changes in the plasma levels of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a gut microbiota-derived metabolite, as a biomarker in early Parkinson's disease (PD).MethodsPlasma TMAO levels were measured in 85 patients with drug-naïve early stage PD and 20 healthy controls. A linear mixed model was used to assess longitudinal changes in levodopa-equivalent dose (LED) during follow-up (>2 y) in three tertile PD groups according to plasma TMAO levels. Additionally, a Cox regression analysis was performed to assess the effect of plasma TMAO levels on dementia conversion.ResultsPlasma TMAO levels of patients with PD were lower than those of healthy controls. A linear mixed model demonstrated that patients with PD and lower levels of TMAO (<4.75 μmol/L; i.e., lowest tertile group) exhibited faster increases in LED over time. The Cox regression model did not reveal that plasma TMAO level was associated with the risk for dementia conversion (P = 0.488). However, when we divided patients with PD into two subgroups according to bet cutoff TMAO level to maximize the log-rank statistics, the PD group with a low plasma TMAO level (<6.92 μmol/L) had a higher risk (with borderline statistical significance) for PD-dementia conversion than the group with a high TMAO level (hazard ratio: 7.565; 95% confidence interval, 1.004-57.019; P = 0.050).ConclusionsThe results demonstrate that lower baseline plasma TMAO levels are associated with faster increases in LED and tend to increase the risk for PD-dementia conversion, suggesting the prognostic implications of TMAO in early stage PD.Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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