Synaptotagmin XI in Parkinson's disease: New evidence from an association study in Spain and Mexico.

Introduction: The pathophysiology of PD (Parkinson's disease) has been related to the ubiquitin proteasome system and oxidative stress. Parkin acts as ubiquitin ligase on several substrates. Because genetic variants often have different frequencies across populations, population specific analyses are necessary to complement and validate results from genome-wide association studies.

Methods: We carried out an association study with genes coding for parkin substrates and cellular stress components in the Galician population (Northern Spain). SNCA and MAPT SNPs were also analyzed. We studied 75 SNPs in a discovery sample of 268 PD patients and 265 controls from Galicia. A replication sample of 271 patients and 260 controls was recruited from Mexico City.

Results: We observed significant association between PD and SNPs in MAPT. Nominal p-values<0.05 were obtained in the Galician cohort for SNPs in SYT11, coding for synaptotagmin XI. These results were replicated in the Mexican sample.

Discussion: The associated markers lie within a ~140kb strong linkage disequilibrium segment that harbors several candidate genes, including SYT11. SNPs from the GBA-SYT11-RAB25 region have been previously associated with PD, however the functionally relevant variants remain unknown. Our data support a likely role of genetic factors within 1q22 in PD susceptibility.