Link between Helicobacter pylori infection and idiopathic parkinsonism.

The conventional concept for an environmental cause of idiopathic parkinsonism is an insult (e.g. neurotoxin or encephalitis), superimposed on age-related attrition of nigral dopaminergic neurons, and temporally remote from neurological diagnosis. To the contrary, we describe the fit of Helicobacter pylori. This commonest of known bacterial infections, usually acquired in childhood, persists, and has been linked with peptic ulcer/non-ulcer dyspepsia, immunosuppression and autoimmunity. Acquired immunosuppression, predisposing to auto-immunity, is assessed as a model for the pathogenesis of parkinsonism and parkinsonian-like attributes of ageing. Eradication of a trigger has potential to change the approach to parkinsonism, just as it did to peptic ulcer. The tenet of inevitable age-related attrition of dopaminergic neurons may also require revision. Copyright 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.