By DPA,
Taipei : An international study led by Taiwan doctors showed that Chinese have a higher chance of developing Parkinson’s disease due to a gene mutation, the Central News Agency said Wednesday.
A team of doctors from Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and the United States carried out the research after finding that Chinese have a higher incidence of developing Parkinson’s disease.
The research teams compared the genes of 1,079 Han Chinese suffering from the disease with that of 907 people who did not have Parkinson’s disease. Han is the largest Chinese ethnic group.
They found that some of the Chinese Parkinson’s disease patients suffer from the mutation of gene LRRK2 which can be traced back to Chinese ancestors 2,500 years ago.
The study shows that three out of every 100 Han Chinese have this gene mutation, and are twice likely to develop Parkinson’s disease as compared with the average people.
Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that often impairs motor skills and speech.
The Taiwan-led study involved the National Taiwan University, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Cathay General Hospital of Taiwan, several Singaporean hospitals, the Mayo Clinic Hospital of the US and Juntendo University of Japan.
The team’s findings are published in the current issue of the Annals of Neurology.