Genetic variations may predispose people to Parkinson's disease following long-term pesticide exposure, study findsA new study found certain genetic variants could help explain how long-term pesticide exposure could increase the risk of Parkinson's disease.
One longstanding hypothesis has been that susceptibility to the disease is a combination of both environmental and genetic factors.used genetic data from nearly 800 Central Valley residents with Parkinson's disease, many of whom had long-term exposure to 10 pesticides used on cotton crops for at least a decade prior to developing the disease, with some patients having been exposed as far back as 1974.
Previous studies have shown that altered autophagy can result in a buildup of a protein called alpha synuclein, which is abundant in the brain and neurons. As the protein builds up, it forms clumps known as"Lewy" bodies that are a pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease. The study's co-lead author and assistant professor of Neurology at UCLA, Dr. Kimberly Paul, said Parkinson's disease is the fastest growing neurodegenerative disease in the world. While an increase in the number of new patients is expected given the large aging population in the U.S., the rate of new Parkinson's disease patients is outpacing the rate that is expected from aging alone, Paul said.
"There are data for a lot of common disorders suggesting that environmental influences impact the development of these diseases, but we don't yet have a good way of measuring that impact or determining who is specifically at risk," Fogel said."This is a step forward in that direction."Kathie J. Ngo, Kimberly C. Paul, Darice Wong, Cynthia D. J. Kusters, Jeff M. Bronstein, Beate Ritz, Brent L. Fogel.University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences.
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