Could Mold be a cause of Parkinson’s Disease?
According to Mayo Clinic, many Parkinson's Disease (PD) symptoms are caused by a loss of neurons (nerve cells) that produce the chemical messenger dopamine. Decreased dopamine leads to irregular brain activity, causing movement problems and other symptoms of PD. People with PD also lose a chemical messenger called norepinephrine that controls many body functions, such as blood pressure.
There have been a number of studies on the causes of PD. These suggest environmental exposure to toxins such as certain synthetic pesticides or heavy metals like manganese are associated with increased risk of PD, and some genetic mutations predispose some individuals to neurological damage from the pesticides. However, PD was first observed long before synthetic pesticides and industrial solvents were produced, suggesting that natural compounds are likely to cause the development of PD. In 2011, researchers outlined several properties that should be fulfilled in looking for suitable environmental candidates involved in PD causes, including (i) the agent should be of natural origin; (ii) the agent should be present worldwide; and (iii) the agent should reproduce PD pathology in experiments. They studied cycads (natural seeds used for food in Guam, where cases of a neurological disease was 100 times that of other places worldwide), epoximicin (a substance produced by actinomycetes bacteria that lives in moist soil and can contaminate into underground water supplies), Nocardia asteroides (a bacterial strain found worldwide that is commonly found in soil and water), as well as a few other plants and bacteria. However, some were not present worldwide. (Natural toxins implicated in the development of Parkinson’s disease)
One natural environmental exposure that causes decrease in dopamine levels was not explored in that paper. 1-octen-3-ol is a microbial volatile organic compound (MVOC) that produces that characteristic “musty” smell characteristic of mold. Perhaps the researchers “missed” it because of the mode of absorption: through the air into our respiratory system. It is among the most common fungal VOCs, and it also fulfills all of the requirements: it’s of natural origin, it’s present worldwide, and it does produce PD symptoms reliably in experiments.
In our Indoor Mold Summary White Paper, we wrote that “1-octen-3-ol (octenol for short and also called mushroom alcohol) selectively affects dopaminergic neurons in adult Drosophila (fruit fly) brain and induces Parkinson’s-like behavioral alterations in a fly model for this disease.” (Fungal-derived semiochemical 1-octen-3-ol disrupts dopamine packaging and causes neurodegeneration) In this study, hour-hold fruit flies were continuously exposed to 0.5ppm (that’s not a lot!). The flies exposed to this gas had a 50% mortality at 16.9 days, with 100% of them dead at about 23 days. One hundred percent of the unexposed flies (control group) lived past 27 days.
1-octen-3-ol damages the dopamine system, most likely through disruption of dopamine handling, which is of particular interest given studies that raised the concern of neuropsychological impairments and movement disorders in human populations exposed to moldy and water-damaged buildings. Recently, a sad story out of Colorado seems to prove this link. Steve Locke was a physically active man who had participated in triathlons and oversaw the U.S. operations for a number of Olympic sports. He moved into an apartment complex with his wife and 5 year old son in Colorado Springs. Only 6 months later in 2016, he and his son began having neurological problems and he was diagnosed with PD, which they attribute to massive amounts of mold in the ceiling of the apartment from unrepaired leaks. The case against the owners of the apartment complex was set to go to trial earlier in 2025, and unfortunately no news about a verdict has surfaced at the time of this post. (Can mold exposure cause Parkinson's disease? Colorado family hopes to prove 'landmark' legal case)
A website dedicated to cure of PD noted that three other toxins created by specific molds also have neurotoxic effects and cause symptoms similar to those of PD.
A 2017 paper hypothesized that fungal or bacterial spores, when breathed in and swallowed, cause a deterioration process of neurons beginning in the gut-brain axis, which coincides with the beginning digestive symptoms in PD, later mimicking a low-grade, long-term infection of the brain. The endospores of actinobacteria are very hardy and hibernate until conditions support their revival and growth. (Parkinson’s disease; the hibernating spore hypothesis) This concept of “infection” by bacterial or fungal agents is very interesting, and supported by a later study in 2020. In this study, central nervous system (CNS) from 6 PD patients showed visual and DNA evidence of at least 11 types of bacteria and fungus, supporting the notion that there are polymicrobial (more than one microbe) infections going on in PD patients. The study also tested tissue from Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) patients, and found a similar high burden of microbes, but in different regions of CNS and by predominantly different microbes. For example, significant percentages of the genus Alternaria was detected in AD, but not in PD, whereas the genera Fusarium, Xylaria and Trichoderma were more prominent in PD, as compared with AD (all forms of fungus). Also, high levels of the bacteria Streptococcus and Pseudomonas have been detected in PD, but not in AD or ALS patients. (Parkinson's Disease: A Comprehensive Analysis of Fungi and Bacteria in Brain Tissue)
Our experience from hearing clients’ stories is that for some people, mold and its toxins makes them ill almost immediately, while others living in the same home or working in the same building do not feel ill; therefore, it’s hard to pinpoint the source of illness. When PD patients and their families “look back” to try to find the cause of this devastating disease, sometimes pesticide or industrial chemical exposures are easy to remember and blame. In fact, they may have been exposed to mold in the same environments (moldy hay and grain on farms, mold in materials on the job), but did not feel ill right away although they inhaled endotoxins or spores that took decades to manifest in PD. Similarly, exposure to pesticides or industrial chemicals can cause neuroinflammation and damage that may allow fungi and bacteria to more easily infect and multiply in these individuals. It’s definitely not an easy diagnosis to deal with but if causative connections to mold or bacteria are made early in the disease, it might slow or prevent progression by administering the right treatment, such as antifungal medicines. Researchers are currently looking at the changes in the nervous system of the gut very early in the onset of PD, and are optimistic to see if eliminating the fungus or reducing the amount of it in the body also eliminates Parkinson’s. (Investigating fungi: A new frontier in Parkinson’s disease)
Photo by Rollz International on Unsplash
