[Molecular biology for familial Parkinson's disease]

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorders. Recently, several forms of familial PD have been reported so far. Among them, several causative genes such as alpha-synuclein, UCH-L1, PINK1, and DJ-1 have been identified. Functional analysis on these causative genes may help us to explore the molecular mechanisms of nigral neuronal death in not only FPD but also sporadic form of PD. Thus, the identification of FPD gives us good information of etiologies of PD.