29th July 2014 - New research

DISCOVERY OF NEW PARKINSON'S DISEASE GENETIC FACTORS

Nature Genetics [2014] (27 July) (M.A.Nalls, N.Pankratz, C.M.Lill, C.B.Do, D.G. Hernandez, M.Saad, A.L.De Stefano, E.Kara, J.Bras, M.Sharma, C.Schulte, M.F.Keller, S.Arepalli, C.Letson, C.Edsall, H.Stefansson, X.Liu, H.Pliner, J.H.Lee, R.Cheng, et al) Complete abstract
                                                                                                                                                                                    
Six new genetic risk factors for Parkinson's Disease have been discovered. Scientists have identified more than two dozen genetic risk factors involved in Parkinson's Disease, including six that had not previously been reported.

They conducted an extensive analysis of Parkinson's Disease genetic studies. Twenty six sites were identified as having a significant genetic association with Parkinson's Disease. These and six additional sites that had previously not been reported were then tested. In total, they identified and replicated 28 independent risk variants for Parkinson's disease across 24 loci (positions on the gene). Although the effect of each individual genetic risk was found to be small, a risk profile analysis showed that there was a substantial cumulative risk of developing Parkinson's Disease because of them. The risk was actually tripled when several genetic risk factors occurred simultaneously.

Their results suggested that the more variants a person has the greater the risk, which is up to three times higher for developing Parkinson's Disease in some cases. Genetic causes of Parkinson's Disease usually make Parkinson's Disease more likely rather than inevitable. Although genetic causes of Parkinson's Disease are uncommon the actual prevalence is unknown. For more news go to Parkinson's Disease News