Researchers believe they have found genetic cause for Parkinson’s disease |

Researchers believe they have found genetic cause for Parkinson’s disease

Posted by Melissa | Filed under Research

Article Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090513p2a00m0na010000c.html

A team led by Shoji Tsuji of the University of Tokyo, and Tatsushi Toda of Kobe University discovered that those with a mutation in a gene called GBA are 28 times more likely to contract Parkinson’s disease. They now hope to use their finding to explain exactly how the disease is caused, and develop a treatment.

There are an estimated 150,000 cases of Parkinson’s disease in Japan. In 90 percent of the cases, however, they are the only members of the family to contract the condition, and the genetic component of the disease has never been identified.

However, the team noticed that the GBA gene, which is responsible for causing an unusual condition called Gaucher’s disease, also showed a mutation in those with Parkinson’s disease.

They examined 534 Parkinson’s patients and 544 healthy people, and found that 9.4 percent of those with the mutation suffered from the disease, and just 0.4 percent did not. They also discovered that those with the GBA mutation contracted the disease around six years earlier than those without.

“It’s the first time that a risk factor has been this clearly identified,” said Tsuji.

Tags: Gaucher Disease, genetic, Research