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LRRK2 Gly2385Arg variant is a risk factor of Parkinson's disease among Han-Chinese from mainland China.

An XK, Peng R, Li T, Burgunder JM, Wu Y, Chen WJ, Zhang JH, Wang YC, Xu YM, Gou YR, Yuan GG, Zhang ZJ

Department of Neurology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

Mutations in the gene encoding Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) have been recently linked with autosomal-dominant parkinsonism, and polymorphisms have been commonly associated with sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD). A p.2385G>R variant has been reported as a risk factor for PD in Taiwan, Singapore and Japan. Herein, we have assessed the frequency of this polymorphism among the ethnic Han-Chinese population in a case-control study. A total of 600 patients with PD and 334 unrelated healthy controls were genotyped using PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium of each group was calculated, and differences in genotype frequencies between groups were assessed by the Chi-square test. In the PD cohort, 70 patients (11.7%) were heterozygous and 1 (0.2%) was homozygous for the p.2385G>R variant. This was significantly more frequent than in the controls [3.3%, Odds ratio = 3.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.1-7.5, P < 0.01]. Clinically, the age of PD onset of the p.2385G>R carriers was lower than the non-carriers (P = 0.01). Our study indicates that this LRRK2 p.2385G>R substitution contributes to the development of PD in ethnic Han-Chinese population, which may play important implications for future study on molecular genetics and pathogenesis of PD.

Published 22 February 2008 in Eur J Neurol, 15(3): 301-5.
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