Genetic studies in Parkinson's disease with an alpha-synuclein/NACP gene polymorphism in Japan

Dinucleotide repeat polymorphism has been observed in the promoter of the a lpha -synuclein (alpha -SYN)/NAC precursor protein (NACP) gene. alpha -SYN/ NACP allele 3 (described by Xia et al. (Ann. Neurol., 40 (1996) 207), equiv alent to allele 1 described by Krijger et a I. (Ann. Neurol. 45 (1999) 611) is reported to be significantly more frequent among patients with sporadic Parkinson's disease (sPD) than controls. In this study, we genotyped the s ame alpha -SYN/NACP polymorphism in Japanese sPD patients and healthy contr ols, but found that any allele showed no significant difference between the two groups. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.