570 Genes for Parkinson’s Disease

Over 1 million Americans are affected by Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurological condition that typically occurs in people older than 50. In the brains of Parkinson’s disease patients, neurons of the substantia nigra die or become otherwise impaired which leads to muscle tremors so severe they can occur even during rest.

Some risk factors for Parkinson’s disease include:

• Familial predisposition. About 15 percent to 20 percent of people who have Parkinson’s have a close relative who has symptoms.
• Accelerated aging. Although the brain ages like the rest of the body, this process may be accelerated in specific brain areas in certain people.
• Exposure to environmental toxins such as pesticides.

Researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Liege, Belgium, used DNA microarrays to analyze 23 brains from recently deceased patients – 15 with Parkinson’s and 8 without. They screened 25,000 human genes and found that 570 were highly abnormal in Parkinsons brains.

Now they’ll have to comb through the 570 genes and figure out which ones have significant functional roles in the etiology of Parkinson’s disease. Good luck!

Imperial College London, December 19, 2005