Scientists Might Have Found Genetic Trigger for Parkinson's

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A team of scientists appears to have unearthed a previously unknown genetic trigger for Parkinson's disease-one much more commonly seen in people with recent African ancestry. They found that those who were born with one or two copies of this associated variant were noticeably more likely to develop Parkinson's. The results highlight the value of conducting genetic research in diverse populations, the authors say.

Much of the research looking into the genetic underpinnings of Parkinson's and other diseases has been done with largely European populations. And while we've learned a lot from this research, the relative lack of data on other groups means we could be missing important information. A large team of scientists from the U.S., the UK, and Nigeria decided to work together to help remedy this gap.

The team conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS)-a type of study that looks for variants statistically linked to diseases or traits in a large group of people. They focused specifically on nearly 200,000 people of African or mixed ancestry, mostly from Nigeria as well as parts of the U.S. About 1,500 individuals in this group were diagnosed with Parkinson's, while the rest were not.

The researchers ultimately identified a novel variant of the gene that produces -glucocerebrosidase (GBA1) that seemed to raise people's risk of Parkinson's. People who had one copy of the variant were 1.5 times more likely to have Parkinson's than those who had no copies, and those with two copies were about 3.5 times more likely to develop it, they found. GBA1 is a protein that helps cells recycle other proteins, and several mutations involving this gene have already been linked to Parkinson's. But this new variant was almost exclusively found in people with African ancestry.

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