Parkinson's disease: insights from pathways.
Parkinson's disease (PD) typically presents in sporadic fashion, but the identification of disease-causing mutations in monogenically inherited PD genes has provided crucial insight into the pathogenesis of this disorder. Mutations in autosomal recessively inherited genes, namely parkin, PINK1 and DJ-1, typically lead to early onset parkinsonism. At least two of these genes (PINK1 and parkin) appear to work in the same pathway related to maintenance of mitochondrial functional integrity under conditions of oxidative stress. Dominantly inherited mutations in leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) and alpha-synuclein cause late onset PD, generally with Lewy bodies that are characteristic of sporadic PD and there is evidence that these two genes are also in a common pathway. There is also growing evidence from recently undertaken genome-wide association studies that naturally occurring sequence variants in alpha-synuclein and LRRK2, but also Tau, also confer an increased risk for late onset, sporadic PD. Collectively, these results highlight how understanding pathways for inherited PD are starting to impact ideas about the pathogenesis, some of which may also be relevant to the commoner sporadic disease.
Cookson
Mark R
MR
National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. cookson@mail.nih.gov
Bandmann
Oliver
O
D000818:Animals; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D000071158:Leucine-Rich Repeat Serine-Threonine Protein Kinase-2; D009154:Mutation; D015513:Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D000071617:Protein Deglycase DJ-1; D011494:Protein Kinases / Q000235:genetics; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D013379:Substrate Specificity; D051843:Synucleins / Q000235:genetics; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / Q000235:genetics; D000099202:PTEN-Induced Putative Kinase
D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D000071158:Leucine-Rich Repeat Serine-Threonine Protein Kinase-2; D015513:Oncogene Proteins; D000071617:Protein Deglycase DJ-1; D011494:Protein Kinases; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D051843:Synucleins; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases; D000099202:PTEN-Induced Putative Kinase; C111567:parkin protein; C495280:LRRK2 protein, human; C105131:PARK7 protein, human