Startling cause of Parkinson’s disease identified!

Photo: Moyan Brenn / flickr / cc by

• “PD” refers to Parkinson’s disease
• PD is a progressive disease of the nervous system presented by tremor, imprecise movement, often affecting elderly persons.
• Causes of PD is yet to be identified completely, however 40% of onset PD patients are known to have common relative with PD.
• New study identified mutations in certain genes linked to Parkinson’s disease.
• Lewy body refers to abnormal growth of protein in nerve cells of patients with onset PD.
• Research identified gene locus for dominant Lewy body- (TMEM230) mutant using genome-wide linkage analysis.
• TMEM 230 mutant is shown to impair trafficking of synaptic vesicles.
• Gene associated with Lewy body appears to be autosomal dominant, referring to 75% chance of inheriting PD with parents having single affected alleles at locus.
• Find out more, at Nature.