Low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP) gene 766T polymorphism and Parkinson's disease

The C766T polymorphism in exon 3 of the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP) gene is underrepresented in Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared with normal subjects. We examined this polymorphism in 186 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and 187 age-matched normal Chinese subjects in addition to 227 newborns representing the general population. The fraction of individuals with 766T was 12.8% in normal subjects and 11.3% in patients with PD, not a significant difference (p = 0.77). The odds ratio was 0.86 with a 95% confidence interval of 0.44-1.69, thus the LRP C766T polymorphism does not play a major role in risk for PD, although the possibility cannot be excluded that it plays a minor role or is a significant risk factor in other ethnic groups.