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At 05:04 26/06/97 -0400, jim and emily jackson wrote: >A copywrited (sorry, can't copy here) story turned up Thu. June 26, 7:01PM >EDT on the Yahoo home page under "health" on the discovery of a Parkinson's >gene in a couple of small groups of genetically related persons in Italy >and Greece. ___________________________________ Copyright laws or not, here it is. We need all the information and help we can get. This news article is a condensed version of the post from Jim= Cordy. Judith ____________________________________ Thursday June 26 7:01 PM EDT=20 Parkinson's Gene Found NEW YORK (Reuters) -- For the first time, researcher have discovered a gene that causes Parkinson's disease, the neurological disorder that causes tremors, muscle rigidity, and difficulty walking.=20 While the genetic mutation may explain only a handful of cases of Parkinson's disease, it may shed light on the causes of the disease in the general population -- an ongoing mystery.=20 "Even if the mutation we have described is directly related to only a small fraction of the total number of Parkinson's disease patients, it provides a clue that should lead to the understanding of the underlying pathways resulting in the symptoms of Parkinson's disease," reported lead study author Dr. Michael Polymeropoulos, of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.=20 The gene was discovered in a large family of Italian descent, whose members are prone to an early-onset form of Parkinson's disease, striking around age 46, according to a report in this week's issue of Science. Afterwards, the mutation in the gene, which makes a protein involved in nerve function called alpha synuclein, was also identified in three unrelated Greek families.=20 The exact function of alpha synuclein is unclear, but in the brain it is expressed in the olfactory bulb (involved in the sense of smell), hippocampus (involved in memory), the amygdala (emotion), and other areas of the brain. The pattern of expression is similar to that of Lewy bodies, protein deposits found in the brain's of Parkinson's disease patients.=20 About 500,000 people in the U.S. have Parkinson's disease, which is caused by nerve cell death in the part of the brain that controls movement. Most patients are treated with levodopa (L-dopa), but the drug has many side effects and eventually stops working.=20 "This finding could prove to be the most significant advance in our understanding of Parkinson's disease since the dopamine hypothesis was put forward in the mid-1960s," said Dr. Harold Varmus in a release from the NIH. "This discovery about Parkinson's disease also deepens our study of Alzheimer's disease, basic neuroscience, cell biology and genome research and gene mapping," said Varmus, the director of the NIH.= =20 The study was conducted by a team of researchers from the NIH; the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, New Jersey; University of Naples, Italy; and the University of Patras Medical School in Greece. SOURCE: Science (1997;276:2045-2047)=20 Copyright =A9 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon=20