RARITY OF DEBRISOQUINE HYDROXYLASE GENE POLYMORPHISM IN CHINESE PATIENTS WITH PARKINSONS-DISEASE

Impaired debrisoquine metabolism resulting from defects in the cytochr ome P450 CYP2D6-debrisoquine hydroxylase gene has been shown to be ass ociated with the development of Parkinson's disease (PD). We studied t wo polymorphisms in this gene in 207 Chinese PD patients and 227 contr ol subjects by polymerase chain reaction and restriction analysis. The G to A substitution at position 1934 in the junction of intron 3/exon 4 was detected in one sporadic PD patient and two control subjects, a ll of whom were heterozygous, The single base deletion at position 263 7 in exon 5 was not detected in any of,:he study subjects. Such rarity of CYP2D6 polymorphism indicates PD in the Chinese population is asso ciated with some other gene defects.