DARDARIN AND PARKINSON’S DISEASE
Parkinson’s disease, which pathological hallmarks are loss
of dopaminergic neurons belonging to substantia nigra and Lewy bodies inside
brain nerve cells, is the second most common neurodegenerative disease. Several rare Parkinson’s
familial forms are linked to genetic loci, and the identification of causal
mutations has provided insight into the disease process. PARK8, identified in
2002 by Funayama and colleagues, appears to be a common cause of familial PD.
Paisan-Ruiz and his colleagues (Cloning of the gene containing
mutations that cause PARK-8-Linked Parkinson’s Disease. Will be published in Neuron 44, Issue 4, 2004 now available on-line: www.neuron.org at 10.1016/S0896627304006890)describe the cloning of
a novel gene that contains missense mutations segregating with PARK8-linked
PD in five families from England and Spain. Because of the tremor observed in
PD and because a number of the families are of Basque descent, we have named
this protein dardarin, derived from the Basque word dardara,
meaning tremor.