The possible association of 7 HLA specificities in the HLA-A locus and 16 specificities in the HLA-B locus with susceptibility to Parkinsonian syndrome was investigated in a total of 36 patients with paralysis agitans (PA), as well as in 11 patients with other Parkinsonian syndromes, and 176 controls in Japan.
The possible association of the clinical differences in L-dopa tolerance and response between Filipinos and Caucasians with Parkinson's disease, with the racial differences in RBC-COMT activity is discussed.
In senile dementia of the Alzheimer type and in Parkinson's disease, no significant difference was found in the gene frequencies of alleles at either the BF, C2, or GLO-I locus compared with those of age-matched controls.
Thirteen patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease and "on-off" fluctuations on oral levodopa plus dopa decarboxylase inhibitor (DDI) were treated with continuous (24 hour) subcutaneous lisuride infusions together with a reduced dose of levodopa (plus DDI).
Decreased tyrosine hydroxylase messenger RNA in the surviving dopamine neurons of the substantia nigra in Parkinson's disease: an in situ hybridization study.
Comparison of diseased human brain tissue with age- and sex-matched controls yielded significant decreases (60-88%) in calbindin protein and mRNA in the substantia nigra (Parkinson disease), in the corpus striatum (Huntington disease), in the nucleus basalis (Alzheimer disease), and in the hippocampus and nucleus raphe dorsalis (Parkinson, Huntington, and Alzheimer diseases) but not in the cerebellum, neocortex, amygdala, or locus ceruleus.
The frequency of fifteen genotypes of CYP2D6 (debrisoquine 4-hydroxylase) in 53 patients with Parkinson's disease was determined by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses and compared with the findings in 72 healthy controls.
Individuals with a metabolic defect in the cytochrome P450 CYP2D6-debrisoquine hydroxylase gene with the poor metaboliser phenotype had a 2.54-fold (95% Cl 1.51-4.28) increased risk of Parkinson's disease.
The data suggest that, in PD: (1) TH protein content is decreased in the surviving nigral dopaminergic neurons, most likely as a result of a lowered TH mRNA cellular content.
The finding of SOD variants in FALS is consistent with the hypothesis that free radicals contribute to the pathogenesis of FALS, and possibly to the pathogenesis of other neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease, in which there is substantial evidence of oxidant stress.