Vacuolar protein sorting 35 Asp620Asn mutation is rare in the ethnic Chinese population with Parkinson's disease

Vacuolar protein sorting 35 (VPS35) Asp620Asn mutation has been identified in late-onset familial Parkinson's disease (PD) patients of Swiss and Austrian descent as well as sporadic PD patients in the United States. In order to determine the contribution of VPS35 mutations in mainland Chinese PD patients and to better understand the association between VPS35 and PD, we sequenced all 17 exons of VPS35 in 32 probands of presumed autosomal-dominant, late-onset familial PD and 35 normal controls. Meanwhile, we analyzed VPS35 Asp620Asn mutation in 512 PD patients. A total of 371 subjects without neurological disorders from the same region in China were set as a control group. We did not find any VPS35 coding region mutation in 32 familial PD patients. VPS35 Asp620Asn mutation was either not found in 480 PD patients. Our results suggested that VPS35 Asp620Asn may be not associated with PD in Chinese population.