TUESDAY, Oct. 28, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- A gene that influences the age at which a person first shows symptoms of Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease has been identified by Duke University Medical researchers.
The gene could become a target for development of drugs that delay the onset of these neurological diseases beyond the normal human lifespan, thereby stopping the onset of these diseases in people at risk for them.
"Although physicians generally consider Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases to be distinct disorders, the two exhibit a lot of overlap both clinically and pathophysiologically," Dr. Jeffery Vance, director of Duke's Morris K. Udall Parkinson's Disease Research Center, says in a prepared statement. "This study emphasizes the similarity between the two diseases by highlighting a single gene that influences their age of onset."
In previous research, he and his colleagues identified a broad chromosomal region linked to the age that a person experience onset of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. In this new study, they were able to narrow that region of the genome to a gene called glutathione S-transferase omega-1 (GSTO1).
The study appears in the Dec. 15 issue of Human Molecular Genetics. It will also be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, to be held Nov. 4-8 in Los Angeles.
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