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. 2007 Sep 18;69(12):1270-7.
doi: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000276989.17578.02.

Mutations in the glucocerebrosidase gene are associated with early-onset Parkinson disease

L N Clark  1 , B M Ross, Y Wang, H Mejia-Santana, J Harris, E D Louis, L J Cote, H Andrews, S Fahn, C Waters, B Ford, S Frucht, R Ottman, K Marder
Affiliations

Mutations in the glucocerebrosidase gene are associated with early-onset Parkinson disease

L N Clark et al. Neurology. .

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the frequency of glucocerebrosidase (GBA) mutations in cases and controls enrolled in the Genetic Epidemiology of Parkinson's Disease (GEPD) study.

Methods: We sequenced all exons of the GBA gene in 278 Parkinson disease (PD) cases and 179 controls enrolled in GEPD, with a wide range of age at onset (AAO), and that included a subset of 178 Jewish cases and 85 Jewish controls. Cases and controls were recruited without knowledge of family history of PD, and cases were oversampled in the AAO < 50 years category.

Results: 13.7% of PD cases (38/278) carried GBA mutations, compared with 4.5% of controls (8/179) (odds ratio [OR] 3.4, 95% CI 1.5 to 7.4). The frequency of GBA mutations was 22.2% in 90 cases with AAO < or = 50 years, compared with 9.7% in 185 cases with AAO > 50 years (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.3 to 5.3). Adjusting for age at the time of evaluation, sex, family history of PD, and Jewish ancestry, GBA carriers had a 1.7-year-earlier AAO of PD (95% CI 0.5 to 3.3, p < 0.04) than noncarriers. The average AAO of PD was 2.5 years earlier in carriers with an AAO < or = 50 years compared with noncarriers (95% CI 0.6 to 4.5, p < 0.01) and this was not seen in the AAO > 50 years group. The frequency of GBA mutations was higher in a subset of 178 cases that reported four Jewish grandparents (16.9%) than in cases who did not report Jewish ancestry (8.0%) (p < 0.01). Nine different GBA mutations were identified in PD cases, including 84insGG, E326K, T369M, N370S, D409H, R496H, L444P, RecNciI, and a novel mutation, P175P.

Conclusions: This study suggests that the Glucocerebrosidase gene may be a susceptibility gene for Parkinson disease and that Glucocerebrosidase mutations may modify age at onset.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic of genes located at the chr1q21 locus that includes GBA (A); a schematic of the GBA gene showing the location of mutations identified in Parkinson disease (PD) cases (B); and sequence chromatograms showing the location of the N370S, 84insGG, and R496H mutations in PD cases (C)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cumulative incidence rates of Parkinson disease in carriers and noncarriers (A) Entire sample, (B) late onset, (C) early onset.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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