In a groundbreaking new study, conducted within the framework of the FWF-funded Cluster of Excellence "Microbiomes drive Planetary Health", scientists from the University of Vienna, in collaboration with the University of Southampton, Aalborg University and Boston University, have revealed that the widely prescribed Parkinson's disease drug entacapone significantly disrupts the human gut microbiome by inducing iron deficiency. The study, published in Nature Microbiology, provides new insights into the often-overlooked impact of human-targeted drugs on the microbial communities that play a critical role in human health. While it is well established that antibiotics can significantly disrupt the human gut microbiome, emerging research shows that a wide range of human-targeted drugs-;particularly those used to treat neurological conditions-;can also profoundly affect the microbial communities living in our bodies.
Despite their intended therapeutic effects on different organs, these drugs can inadvertently disrupt the balance of gut microbes, leading to potential health consequences. Until now, most studies investigating these interactions relied either on patient cohort analyses affected by many confounding factors or on experiments using isolated gut bacteria, which do not fully capture the complexity of the human microbiome. A novel study design to investigate drug-bug interactions Using a novel experimental approach, the international team studied the effects of two drugs-;e.