Pantothenic Acid and Parkinson Disease: A Systematic Review of Metabolomics Analysis Studies

The protective effects of vitamins on the dopaminergic neurons and against alpha-synuclein toxicity indicate their possible contribution to Parkinson disease (PD) pathogenesis. Suboptimal status of pantothenic acid could play a potential role in neurodegeneration through impairment of coenzyme A synthesis.

In this study we aimed to summarize the available evidence concerning the link between pantothenic acid and the risk of PD.

We searched the databases of PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and Google Scholar with no date restrictions up to June 2025 to find original published literature on the relationship between pantothenic acid and PD.

We eliminated duplicated or unrelated studies and critically evaluated the findings of the screened studies, summarizing them descriptively. We also investigated possible mechanistic pathways relating to the connection between pantothenic acid and the risk of PD.

Of the 1208 citations obtained, 19 articles (3 dietary assessments and 16 metabolomics analysis studies) were included in the final review. Two out of 3 studies showed that high dietary consumption of pantothenic acid was associated with decreased odds of PD. Of 16 studies that performed metabolomics analysis of biofluids, brain structures, and fecal samples, all studies reported the recognition of pantothenic acid as an altered metabolite in PD patients compared with controls (reduced level, n = 12; increased level, n = 2; disturbed pathway, n = 2) and the identification of pantothenic acid as a metabolite that may be useful for differentiating the PD group from the healthy group.

According to most of the evidence reported in this review, reductions in pantothenic acid levels or alterations of the pantothenate-coenzyme A biosynthesis pathway may be instrumental in the etiopathology of PD.The protocol of this study was registered and approved by the Deputy for Research and Technology, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (IR.TBZMED.VCR.REC.1403.090) (https://ethics.research.ac.ir/ProposalCertificateEn.php?id=479859&Print), Tabriz, Iran.