Nhan Nguyen

A new study led by researchers from the National Institutes of Health details how a state-of-the-art gene chip led to the discovery of six new tam that bac genetic risk factors for Parkinson's disease, potentially providing a better understanding of the disorder and paving the way for new treatment strategies.
Parkinsons gene chip
NeuroX - an advanced gene chip - helped researchers identify six new genetic risk factors for Parkinson's.
Image credit: National Human Genome Research Institute

The research team, including senior study author Andrew Singleton, PhD, a scientist at the National Institute on Aging, recently published their findings in the journal Nature Genetics.

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative neurological disorder affecting more than 500,000 people in the US. Every year, approximately 50,000 more are diagnosed with the disorder, and these numbers are expected to increase along with the aging population.

The exact cause of Parkinson's disease is unclear. However, recent research has identified a number of genes believed to increase a person's susceptibility to the disorder.

In this latest study, tam that bac chua benh gi Singleton and colleagues set out to add to these findings by conducting a large-scale meta-analysis of existing genome-wide association studies, involving 13,708 individuals with Parkinson's disease and 95,282 controls.

The team collaborated with numerous public and private organizations to gather the data, including the US Department of Defense and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
24 genetic risk factors for Parkinson's confirmed, including six new ones

From their analysis - which tested more than 7.8 million genetic variants - the researchers identified 26 genetic variants that may increase a person's risk of developing Parkinson's. In some cases, they found that individuals who possess these variants may be up to three times more likely to develop the disorder.

The researchers then looked to confirm whether these 26 variants, alongside six additional variants previously associated with Parkinson's, increased risk of the disease among 5,353 individuals with the disease and 5,551 controls.

They did this by comparing the 32 genetic variants with those on an advanc