We are pleased to announce that Dr. Sandra Morais Cardoso from the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology and Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal, will join Targeting Extracellular Vesicles 2026 as a speaker.

Summary of Talk: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is increasingly viewed as a systemic disorder in which gut dysbiosis and peripheral immune activation may contribute to disease initiation and progression. Bacterial extracellular vesicles (BEVs) have emerged as promising microbiota-derived mediators capable of shaping host immune responses. In this study, we explored the immunomodulatory potential of probiotic-derived BEVs in a gut-first mouse model of PD and in peripheral blood immune cells from human control donors. In the mouse model, BEV treatment was assessed for its ability to modulate intestinal inflammation, immune cell polarization, barrier-related responses, systemic inflammatory signals, and the accumulation of α-synuclein within immune cell populations associated with disease progression. In parallel, blood-based assays in human controls were used to evaluate whether BEVs directly influence peripheral immune cell activation, cytokine responses, and intracellular α-synuclein burden. Together, these findings support BEVs as biologically active mediators of gut–immune communication and suggest their potential as a disease-modifying strategy aimed at restoring immune balance and limiting α-synuclein-associated immune alterations in PD.