Genetic Links to Parkinson’s Identified

Genetic Links to Parkinson’s Identified

Researchers in the U.S., Germany, France, Iceland, the Netherlands and the U.K. are working together, sharing data, in a joint effort to unmask the genetic markers for Parkinson’s disease. While their past efforts have uncovered six genetic markers associated with the disease, they have recently found more.

In an online post in The Lancet, researchers announced that they have identified five more genetic variants which point to increased risk of Parkinson’s. The findings are based on analysis data from over seven and a half million people. The, now eleven, variants in the genes of the individuals indicate that about 20% of the people with the greatest number of these variants are at 2.5 times the risk for developing the disease.

“We have confirmed a strong genetic component to Parkinson’s disease which, until recently, was thought to be completely caused by environmental factors,”

the researchers said in the online report. “This study provides evidence that common genetic variation plays an important part in the cause of Parkinson’s disease.”