Association of long variants of the dopamine D4 receptor exon 3 repeat polymorphism with Parkinson's disease.
The dopamine D4 receptor (D4DR) has a highly polymorphic region in the third exon which has been associated with novelty seeking (NS) behavior. Due to the central position of dopamine and the documented low NS in Parkinson's disease (PD), the frequency of the exon 3 variants of D4DR in 95 PD patients and 47 controls was investigated. A significantly higher frequency of exon 3 alleles with six or more repeat units was found in the PD group (p = 0.039). This provides evidence that some forms of the highly polymorphic D4DR may represent a genetic susceptibility factor for PD.
Ricketts
M H
MH
Department of Psychiatry, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway 08854, USA. Ricketts@umdnj.edu
Hamer
R M
RM
Manowitz
P
P
Feng
F
F
Sage
J I
JI
Di Paola
R
R
Menza
M A
MA
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005091:Exons; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2 / Q000235:genetics*; D050638:Receptors, Dopamine D4
C493599:DRD4 protein, human; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2; D050638:Receptors, Dopamine D4