Neurofilament M gene in a French-Canadian Population with Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Recently, a single base pair substitution (G1747A) mutation of the neurofilament M (NF-M) gene was reported in a French-Canadian patient with early onset Parkinson's disease (PD). Three unaffected siblings were found to be heterozygotes for the NF-M Gly336Ser mutation but, to date, no other affected PD individuals have been found with a similar mutation. No other individuals with Parkinson's disease and of similar ethnic background have been screened for this mutation. We screened 102 French-Canadian patients with definite PD and 45 French-Canadian controls for this substitution in the NF-M gene using a PCR-restriction enzyme digestion method. None of the patients or controls carried this mutation. Our results would indicate that this mutation is not common even in a PD population of similar ethnic background and suggest this change represents a rare variant. However, these results do not exclude the possibility that other mutations in this gene could be present.