Genetic analysis of the α2-macroglobulin gene in early- and late-onset Parkinson's disease

Rejko Krüger*, Ana M.V. Menezes-Saecker, Ludger Schöls, Wilfried Kuhn, Thomas Müller, Dirk Woitalla, Daniela Berg, Klaus Berger, Horst Przuntek, Jörg T. Epplen, Olaf Riess

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recent association studies investigating polymorphisms in the α2-macroglobulin (A2M) gene provided evidence for an involvement of this protease inhibitor in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The partially overlapping pathology between AD and Parkinson's disease (PD) led us to investigate the role of A2M in PD. We performed association studies in a large sample of 328 German PD patients and 322 closely matched healthy controls. Analyzing the Va1100011e polymorphism and a pentanucleotide deletion in the 5' splice site of exon 18 of the A2M gene we found an excess of homozygosity for the A2M deletion in early-onset PD (EOPD) patients (age at onset < 50 years) compared to late-onset PD (LOPD) patients (age at onset < 50 years; p = 0.008, p(p)c = 0.064, χ2 = 7.017). Therefore our data might indicate an age at onset modulating effect of the homozygous A2M deletion in PD. (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2439-2442
Number of pages4
JournalNeuroReport
Volume11
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Aug 2000
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Age at disease onset
  • Genetics
  • Parkinson's disease
  • α2-Macroglobulin

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