Parkinson's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Parkinson's Disease, including details on symptoms, treatment, genetics, medication.

The homozygote AA genotype of the alpha1-antichymotrypsin gene may confer protection against early-onset Parkinson's disease in women.

Lin JJ, Yueh KC, Chang CY, Chen CH, Lin SZ

Department of Neurology, Chushang Show-Chwan Hospital, 75 Sec. 2 Chi-Shang Road, Chushang Jenn, Nantou 557, Taiwan. cs6682@csshow.org.tw

There has been increasing evidence suggesting that inflammatory response maybe involved in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD). Alpha1-antichymotrypsin gene (ACT) has been regarded as a susceptibility factor for PD in the past, but the evidence remains controversial. This case-control study was designed to investigate the association of alpha1-antichymotrypsin gene (ACT) polymorphism between 210 Taiwanese patients with clinical definite sporadic PD and 260 controls, matched by age and sex. There were no differences of allelic frequency (A and T) and genotype polymorphism (AA, AT and TT) of the ACT in PD patients from the controls. However, there were significantly fewer early-onset PD (onset age younger than 60 years) or PD women carrying the homozygote AA genotype (ACT-AA) than in controls (p=0.046 and 0.044, respectively). Further analysis revealed that the reduced risk of ACT-AA was particularly significant among PD women with the onset age younger than 60 years (OR=0.796, 95% CI=0.749-0.847, p<0.0001). This study shows that ACT-AA may confer a modest protection against developing early-onset PD in women.

Published 15 November 2004 in Parkinsonism Relat Disord, 10(8): 469-73.
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