Categories: Français
      Date: May 13, 2010
     Title: International Seminar, 20 May 2010 at 12:30

New discoveries in autosomal dominant parkinsonism

Dr Marie-Christine CHARTIER-HARLIN, PhD, Directeur de Recherche Inserm, University Lille Nord de France

Auditoire Sternon, CHU de Liège, Sart Tilman B36, 4000 Liège http://www2.ulg.ac.be/acces/plans/b36.html

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common, neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s disease and is caused by the loss of dopaminergic neuronal cells. Although PD was long considered a non genetic disorder of “sporadic” origin, around 5-10% are now known to have a monogenic forms of the disease. Research in PD genetics has been very prolific over the past decade and at least 16 loci and 5 main genes have been identified in autosomal dominant and recessive forms of inheritance. Such information facilitates the understanding of the pathogenesis and may be of great help in the future to design therapies which intervene in these pathways. Our group undertook the follow-up of PD families for many years and collected DNA, plasma and RNA in order to seek out new genes involved in this disorder or to better understand the biological consequences of deleterious genes. In this seminar, I will present data suggesting the involvement of a new PD gene, opening new directions of research.