alpha(1)-Antichymotrypsin gene polymorphism and susceptibility to Parkinson's disease

Objective: To determine whether the alpha(1)-antichymotrypsin AA genotype ( ACT-AA) confers susceptibility for developing Parkinson's disease (PD) in t he Spanish population. Background: A correlation between the ACT-AA genotyp e and the risk of developing PD has been recently reported in the Japanese population. Methods: The ACT genotypes of 71 patients diagnosed with clinic ally definite PD were compared with those of 109 age-matched healthy contro l subjects. Results: The authors found that the ACT-AA polymorphism frequen cy was not increased significantly in the PD group (31%) compared with the control group (28.4%). The ACT allelic distribution was also similar for fa milial and sporadic PD, for female and male patients, and for the different clinical subtypes of PD. The age at onset of PD was significantly lower in the ACT-AA patients compared with non-ACT-AA patients. When the actual age was considered, the ACT-AA frequency was higher in PD patients less than o r equal to 50 years old (50%) compared with that present in patients >50 ye ars old (26.8%), but the same effect was found in control subjects. Conclus ions: The ACT-AA polymorphism is not related to an increased risk of develo ping PD in the Spanish population. The ACT-AA overrepresentation in PD and control subjects less than or equal to 50 years old suggests that this poly morphism could be associated with life-threatening conditions other than PD .