title: Vitamin D receptor gene as a candidate gene for Parkinson disease.
abstract: Vitamin D and vitamin D receptor (VDR) have been postulated as environmental and genetic factors in neurodegeneration disorders including multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer disease (AD), and recently Parkinson disease (PD). Given the sparse data on PD, we conducted a two-stage study to evaluate the genetic effects of VDR in PD. In the discovery stage, 30 tagSNPs in VDR were tested for association with risk as a discrete trait and age-at-onset (AAO) as a quantitative trait in 770 Caucasian PD families. In the validation stage, 18 VDR SNPs were tested in an independent Caucasian cohort (267 cases and 267 controls) constructed from a genome-wide association study (GWAS). In the discovery dataset, SNPs in the 5' end of VDR were associated with both risk and AAO with more significant evidence of association with AAO (P= 0.0008-0.02). These 5' SNPs were also associated with AD in another study. In the validation dataset, SNPs in the 3' end of VDR were associated with AAO (P= 0.003) but not risk. The 3' end SNP has been associated with both MS and AD in previous studies. Our findings suggest VDR as a potential susceptibility gene and support an essential role of vitamin D in PD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Duke University Medical Center, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Megan W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.forename: Amber
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Burt
authors.forename: Todd L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zuchner
authors.forename: William K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Eden R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Jeffery M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Vance
authors.forename: Liyong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D018167:Receptors, Calcitriol / Q000235:genetics*; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000502:physiology; D044465:White People
chemical_list: D018167:Receptors, Calcitriol; D014807:Vitamin D