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Mutant gene found that increases the risk of Parkinson’s

An international research project has spotted a Parkinsonism-related gene mutation that only develops in Han Chinese that makes it twice as likely that carriers will develop Parkinson’s disease.

The National Science Council has contributed funding to the project.

The mutation, known as R1628P, is found in gene LRRK2 which codes for protein Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2, a paper published in the science journal, Annals of Neurology says.

Parkinsonism, also known as Parkinson syndrome, is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that often impairs a person’s speech and movement.

The group of experts from Taiwan, Singapore, Japan and the US has already reported other Parkinsonism-related mutations linked to LRRK2 and found correlations between different ethnic groups and individual mutations.

For example, the researchers found that LRRK2-G2019S is a common cause of Parkinsonism among Berber Arabs and Ashkenazi Jews.

In 2004, the group reported that a mutation, G2385R in LRRK2, was linked to Parkinsonism in Asians, especially Han Chinese. Individuals carrying the mutation were more than twice as likely to develop the disease than non-carriers.

The LRRK2-G2385R mutation does not appear to play a role in Parkinson’s disease within other racial groups, research results published in 2005 show.

Their researchers said the G2385R mutation occurred approximately 4,800 years ago, corresponding with the rise of Chinese civilization.

Most of the research into LRRK2-G2385R has been conducted by teams from National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) in Taipei and the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.

On the newly found R1628P, Wu Ruey-mei (吳瑞美), director of hospital’s Center for Parkinsonism and Movement Disorder and one of the researchers, said the LRRK2-R1628P mutation could also double the risk of Han Chinese developing Parkinson’s.

Japanese, who were studied last year and this year by the researchers, showed no indication of such a mutation, she said.

The incidence rate of R1628P mutation is estimated to be three in 100 among Han Chinese, Wu said, adding that this mutation might be have been passed down some 2,500 years ago.
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