{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]],"date-time":"2026-10-13T01:52:02Z","timestamp":1791856322013,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,25]],"date-time":"2023-01-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1674604800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Dystonia is a movement disorder in which patients have involuntary abnormal movements or postures. Non-motor symptoms, such as psychiatric symptoms, sleep problems and fatigue, are common. We hypothesise that the gut microbiome might play a role in the pathophysiology of the (non-)motor symptoms in dystonia via the gut\u2013brain axis. This exploratory study investigates the composition of the gut microbiome in dystonia patients compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, the abundance of neuro-active metabolic pathways, which might be implicated in the (non-)motor symptoms, was investigated. We performed both metagenomic and 16S rRNA sequencing on the stool samples of three subtypes of dystonia (27 cervical dystonia, 20 dopa-responsive dystonia and 24 myoclonus-dystonia patients) and 25 controls. While microbiome alpha and beta diversity was not different between dystonia patients and controls, dystonia patients had higher abundances of Ruminococcus torques and Dorea formicigenerans, and a lower abundance of Butyrivibrio crossotus compared to controls. For those with dystonia, non-motor symptoms and the levels of neurotransmitters in plasma explained the variance in the gut microbiome composition. Several neuro-active metabolic pathways, especially tryptophan degradation, were less abundant in the dystonia patients compared to controls. This suggest that the gut\u2013brain axis might be involved in the pathophysiology of dystonia. Further studies are necessary to confirm our preliminary findings.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms24032383","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,26]],"date-time":"2023-01-26T01:57:07Z","timestamp":1674698227000},"page":"2383","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Gut Microbiome Composition in Dystonia Patients"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"24","author":[{"given":"Elze R.","family":"Timmers","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands"},{"name":"Expertise Center Movement Disorders Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3709-9193","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"J. Casper","family":"Swarte","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2119-0539","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ranko","family":"Gacesa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Johannes R.","family":"Bj\u00f6rk","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rinse K.","family":"Weersma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marina A. J.","family":"Tijssen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands"},{"name":"Expertise Center Movement Disorders Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tom J.","family":"de Koning","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Expertise Center Movement Disorders Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands"},{"name":"Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Box 117, 221 00 Lund, Sweden"},{"name":"Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2725-6148","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hermie J. M.","family":"Harmsen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Microbiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9384-4354","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Klary E.","family":"Niezen-Koning","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Expertise Center Movement Disorders Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands"},{"name":"Laboratory of Metabolic Diseases, Department of Laboratory Medicine, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"25","DOI":"10.1038\/s41572-018-0023-6","article-title":"Dystonia","volume":"4","author":"Balint","year":"2018","journal-title":"Nat. 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