Objective: To investigate whether Parkinson's disease(PD) is associated with genetic polymorphism of intron 13 of monoamine oxidase B(MAO-B) and NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase(NQO1) gene cDNA 609C to T.
Methods: Association study was performed in 126 PD patients and 136 healthy control subjects matched for age, sex and origin. The NQO1 gene polymorphism was analyzed with the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism, the polymorphism of intron 13 of MAO-B was analyzed by allele- specific PCR.
Results: The allelic frequency of the mutant T allele of NQO1 gene was significantly higher in the PD patients as compared to the controls(P<0.05). The relative risk of suffering from PD increased (OR=3.8) in the individuals with T allelic genotype of NQO1 gene, and the odds ratio was as high as 5.7 when the individuals with A or AA genotype of MAO-B gene coexisted with the T allele genotype of NQO1 gene.
Conclusion: The cDNA 609T allele of NQO1 gene might be a risk factor of PD, which could be associated with the genetic susceptibility of PD. The high activity A or AA genotype of MAO-B and the low activity genotype of NQO1 gene might have synergistic effect. When both genotypes coexist, the risk of suffering PD will be increased greatly.