Previous studies have reported the
anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-
cancer effects of
fisetin. However, the therapeutic efficacy of
fisetin in
Parkinson's disease (PD) is unclear. In this study, we demonstrated that
fisetin could markedly alleviate
1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (
MPTP)-induced dopaminergic neurodegeneration in mice. To confirm the reported correlation between gut microbiota and PD, the
bacterial DNA in the fresh feces of mice from each group was subjected to
16S rRNA (V3 and V4 regions) sequencing. The results revealed that
fisetin changed the number, diversity, and distribution of gut microbiota in
MPTP-induced mice model of PD. The alpha and beta diversity analyses showed that the
fisetin intervented
MPTP group gut microbiota exhibited a significantly higher abundance of Lachnospiraceae and a significantly lower abundance of uncultured_bacterium_g_Escherichia-Shigella and uncultured_bacterium_g_Bacillus than the
MPTP group gut microbiota. These findings indicated that
fisetin exerts a
neuroprotective effect on neurodegeneration by altering the composition and diversity of gut microbiota. Thus,
fisetin could be a potential novel therapeutic for PD.