Deciphering the Impact of Exposures From the Gut Microbiome-derived Molecular Complex in Human Health and Disease
The ExpoBiome project will analyze the impact of fasting on patients with Parkinsons's Disease (PD) or rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on a clinical level as well as the effect of fasting on their immune system and gut microbiota. ExpoBiome will combine metagenomics and other omics \[meta-transcriptomics, meta-proteomics and (meta-)metabolomics\], bioinformatic analyses and biostatistics under a systems biology framework to gain new mechanistic insights into microbiome-immune system interactions in the context of chronic diseases with inflammatory signatures. Besides a one time crossectional study of healthy participants, patients with RA and PD a longitudinal fasting study with two arms (RA and PD) is planned.
• One of the following diagnoses: rheumatoid arthritis (first diagnosis \>6 weeks ago and \<8 years), parkinson's disease OR healthy volunteer
• Control (healthy) individuals must be without any evidence of active, known or treated RA, without any evidence of active, known or treated central nervous system disease, and without a known family history of idiopathic PD
• Arthritis in at least one joint
• Control individuals should match the RA or PD individuals as closely as possible, especially their age, sex, and education
• Present written declaration of consent
• Consent to specimen collection and specimen use
• Ability to understand the patient information and willingness to sign the consent form