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Health

Gene with common link to Parkinson's discovered

19 January 2005

GENETIC screening could soon help identify people who have inherited a mutation linked to Parkinson’s disease.

In three studies published online in The Lancet this week, researchers show that a single mutation in one gene is to blame for 5 per cent of cases of Parkinson’s disease in families with a history of the disease. The same mutation is also responsible for 2 per cent of cases in families with no Parkinson’s history.

That makes the mutation, in a recently discovered gene called LRRK2, the most common yet linked to Parkinson’s. Other mutations in the same gene may also…

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