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Science 27 June 1997:
Vol. 276. no. 5321, p. 1973
DOI: 10.1126/science.276.5321.1973
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Research News

NEUROBIOLOGY:
Gene Discovery Offers Tentative Clues to Parkinson's

Gretchen Vogel

Parkinson's disease is caused by the gradual die-off of a set of brain neurons that make the neurotransmitter dopamine. Now, neurobiologists may have found a much-needed clue to what causes the death of those neurons. On page 2045, a research team reports identifying a gene that, when defective, causes an inherited form of Parkinson's in a large Italian family. The gene, which encodes a brain protein of unknown function called alpha-synuclein, will probably account for, at most, only a few percent of all cases of the disease. But if researchers can figure out just how the mutated alpha-synuclein exerts its effects, they may also gain insight into the cause of the much larger number of cases of nonhereditary Parkinson's disease.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)