Significant association between the tau gene A0/A0 genotype and Parkinson's disease

A significant association between the tau gene A0/A0 genotype and progressi ve supranuclear palsy has been reported recently. To determine if the prese nce of a tan polymorphism could constitute a risk factor for the developmen t of sporadic and familial Parkinson's disease, a dinucleotide repeat marke r at intron 11 was genotyped in 152 patients with PD, 52 patients with Alzh eimer's disease, and 150 healthy controls. We detected a significant differ ence in AO allelic frequency in the Parkinson's disease group (79.27%) comp ared with the control group (71%) and the Alzheimer's disease group (73.07% ). Individuals homozygous for the A0 allele were also detected significantl y more frequently in the Parkinson's disease group (63.8%) compared with th e control group (52.66%) and the Alzheimer's disease group (48.07%). These results suggest a possible involvement of the tau gene in the pathogenesis of some cases of Parkinson's disease.