GLIS1 rs797906: an increased risk factor for late-onset Parkinson's disease in the Han Chinese population

Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs797906 of the GLIS family zinc finger 1 (GLIS1) gene has been linked to a risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) in genome-wide association studies of Caucasian populations.

A total of 380 unrelated Han patients with PD from the Department of Neurology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, and 275 unrelated Han Chinese healthy controls (HC) from the same region were included. rs797906 SNP was genotyped using Sequenom iPLEX Assay technology.

No significant differences were found in the genotype and allele frequencies for rs797906 between the PD and HC groups. There were no significant differences in genotype frequencies between early-onset PD and HC groups and between late-onset PD and HC groups. The frequency of allele 'A' for rs797906 in the late-onset PD group was significantly higher than that in the HC group (p = 0.046, OR 1.2726, 95% CI 1.0039-1.6132). Moreover, the frequency of allele 'A' in the late-onset PD group was significantly higher than that in the early-onset PD group (p = 0.001).

We have found that allele 'A' of rs797906 SNP increases the risk for late-onset PD in the Han Chinese population. More associated studies with larger numbers of participants are needed to confirm the present findings.