ABSTRACT
Iron overload may lead to neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and alterations of iron-related genes might be involved in the pathogenesis of this disease. The gene of haemochromatosis (HFE) encodes the HFE protein which interacts with the transferrin receptor (TFR), lowering its affinity for iron-bound transferrin (TF). We examined four known polymorphisms, C282Y and H63D in the HFE gene, G258S in the TF gene and S82G in the TFR gene, in 181 sporadic PD patients and 180 controls from Southern Italy to investigate their possible role in susceptibility to PD. No significant differences were found in genotype and allele frequencies between PD and controls for all the polymorphisms studied, suggesting that these variants do not contribute significantly to the risk of PD.
Subject(s)
Genetic Association Studies/methods , Histocompatibility Antigens Class I/genetics , Membrane Proteins/genetics , Parkinson Disease/genetics , Polymorphism, Genetic/genetics , Receptors, Transferrin/genetics , Transferrin/genetics , Adult , Aged , Case-Control Studies , Female , Gene Frequency , Genotype , Hemochromatosis Protein , Humans , Italy/epidemiology , Male , Middle Aged , Parkinson Disease/epidemiology , Parkinson Disease/metabolism , Transferrin/metabolismABSTRACT
The major component of Lewy Bodies (LB), the pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD) is α-synuclein, most prominently phosphorylated at serine 129. G-protein coupled receptor kinase 5 (GRK5) has been reported to phosphorylate α-synuclein in vitro, enhancing the α-synuclein toxicity to dopaminergic neurons in Drosophila model. Moreover, GRK5 was found in LBs from brain of PD patients. A genetic association study performed in the Japanese population revealed haplotypic association of the GRK5 gene with susceptibility to sporadic PD. We aimed at investigating whether four polymorphisms within the GRK5 gene (rs871196, rs2420616, rs7069375, rs4752293) could represent a risk factor for sporadic PD in Southern Italy. We genotyped 446 patients with PD and 450 controls for these markers and did not find any significant association with the disease at allelic, genotypic and haplotypic level. Our results indicate that the GRK5 gene does not confer risk to sporadic PD in our sample from Southern Italy.
Subject(s)
G-Protein-Coupled Receptor Kinase 5/genetics , Genetic Association Studies , Genetic Predisposition to Disease , Parkinson Disease/enzymology , Parkinson Disease/genetics , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Case-Control Studies , Female , Gene Frequency/genetics , Humans , Linkage Disequilibrium/genetics , Male , Middle Aged , Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide/geneticsABSTRACT
Myocardial (123)Metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) enables the assessment of postganglionic sympathetic cardiac innervation. MIBG uptake is decreased in nearly all patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Our objective was to evaluate MIBG uptake in patients with genetic PD. We investigated MIBG uptake in 14 patients with PD associated with mutations in different genes (Parkin, DJ-1, PINK1, and leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 -LRRK2), in 15 patients with idiopathic PD, and 10 control subjects. The myocardial MIGB uptake was preserved in 3 of the 4 Parkin-associated Parkinsonisms, in 1 of the 2 patients with DJ-1 mutations, in 1 of the 2 brothers with PINK1 mutations, in 3 of the 6 unrelated patients with Gly2019Ser mutation in the LRRK2 gene, whereas it was impaired in all patients with idiopathic PD. MIBG was preserved in all control subjects. Our study shows that myocardial MIGB uptake was normal in 8 of 14 patients with genetic PD, suggesting that cardiac sympathetic denervation occurs less frequently in genetic PD than in idiopathic PD. Our findings also demonstrate that MIGB uptake has a heterogeneous pattern in genetic PD, because it was differently impaired in patients with different mutations in the same gene or with the same gene mutation.
Subject(s)
3-Iodobenzylguanidine/pharmacokinetics , Myocardium/metabolism , Parkinson Disease/diagnosis , Parkinson Disease/genetics , Parkinsonian Disorders/diagnosis , Parkinsonian Disorders/genetics , Point Mutation/genetics , Radiopharmaceuticals/pharmacokinetics , Adult , DNA Mutational Analysis , Diagnosis, Differential , Female , Galvanic Skin Response/physiology , Genotype , Humans , Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins/blood , Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins/genetics , Leucine-Rich Repeat Serine-Threonine Protein Kinase-2 , Male , Middle Aged , Movement Disorders/diagnosis , Movement Disorders/epidemiology , Oncogene Proteins/blood , Oncogene Proteins/genetics , Parkinson Disease/epidemiology , Parkinsonian Disorders/epidemiology , Promoter Regions, Genetic , Protein Deglycase DJ-1 , Protein Kinases/blood , Protein Kinases/genetics , Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases/blood , Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases/genetics , Severity of Illness Index , Surveys and Questionnaires , Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon/methods , Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases/blood , Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases/geneticsABSTRACT
We report a family with 5 affected individuals manifesting either essential tremor (ET), Parkinsonism, or both, consistent with pseudo-dominant inheritance of PARK2. Two homozygotes presented postural and kinetic tremor several years before the onset of Parkinsonism. Postural and kinetic tremor mimicking ET was the only feature in 1 homozygous and 2 heterozygous carriers of the mutation. Striatal dopamine transporter density was reduced in accordance with phenotype and number of mutated alleles. In 3 homozygotes and 1 heterozygote, a 2-year follow-up single photon emission computed tomography suggested no progression of nigrostriatal deficit.
