A novel P755L mutation in LRRK2 gene associated with Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder. The identification of leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene mutations as a cause of Parkinson's disease has greatly expanded our knowledge of the genetic and molecular pathogenesis of this disorder. By denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography and gene sequencing in patients and controls, we identified a novel frequent heterozygous 2264C-->T substitution, which causes a proline-to-leucine mutation (P755L) in LRRK2 gene. In our sample of 598 patients of Chinese Han ancestry, 12 cases carried the same LRRK2 mutation. Our results indicated that this single mutation was implicated in 2% of sporadic patients. We suggest that testing for this mutation will be important in the management and genetic counseling of patients with Parkinson's disease.