Association of Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms of the Tau Gene With Late-Onset Parkinson Disease

Abstract

Parkinson disease (PD) is a progressive neurologic disorder that affects more than 500 000 people in the United States.¹ The etiology of PD is complex and likely involves several different environmental and genetic factors. Familial aggregation and sibling risk studies^2,3 have supported a genetic component for late-onset, idiopathic PD. Two genes (α-synuclein and parkin) have been identified that lead to very rare mendelian forms of the phenotype.^4,5 However, our recent genome screen for linkage in PD produced the first strong evidence suggesting multiple genetic susceptibility loci for the common form of PD.⁶