The Genetics Side of Parkinson's Disease

    Parkinson's disease is a disorder of the nervous system that affects movements in the body. With this disease, nerve cells in the brain die that could cause issues with balance, tremors and stiffness. There are both environmental and genetic factors that could link to Parkinson's. The environmental causes include certain pesticides, heavy metals, solvents, MPTP and air pollution. While the genetic side includes mutations in certain genes that are underlying in a smaller percentage of cases. But there is still a lot of information that has yet to be discovered about the genetic side of Parkinson's disease.

    Dr Makarious and her team are researching Parkinson's genetics on a deeper level. They first look into the percentages of people with the symptoms and then dive into the genetic data given by participants. The study “Tackling a disease on a global scale, the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program, GP2: A new generation of opportunities” explains how important it is to look at Parkinson's from a genetics point of view especially with a community involved. First, they share that “around 8% of individuals with PD have died, 25% have developed significant problems with their balance, and 25% have developed cognitive impairment or dementia”. This highlights how quickly progressive and aggressive this disease is and how deeply it could affect your life. Next they dive into how having a community accelerates their overall research of the topic. They exclaimed “Accelerated and dramatic expansion of our understanding of the genetic basis of PD by generating and analyzing genetic data from more than 200,000 participants to create resources and make discoveries across the spectrum of PD risk, from causative to risk variants”. With this information, they proved that having a lot of participants accelerated their research and helped society better understand the disease overall.

    David Kumbroch is researching a similar topic including genetics research in terms of Parkinson's disease. In his article “Keeping a Focus on Diversity in Parkinson's Research” he begins by explaining that Parkinson's affects people universally, but it doesn’t affect them all the same way and he strives to discover more ways to help as many people as he can. He explained that working with larger groups and communities gives researchers more of a chance to look deeper into the biology of certain causes of Parkinson’s. By working with so many people he believes that it will improve overall care of this disease.

In conclusion, both of these articles explain the importance of working with communities to help accelerate the much needed therapies and possible solutions to Parkinson's through genetics. These studies both show how difficult it is to receive information on this disease due to its complexities. But with the help of many people striving for better, they are making a difference.

References

David Kumbroch                Senior Science Writer. “Keeping a Focus on Diversity in Parkinson’s Research.” The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research | Parkinson’s Disease, www.michaeljfox.org/news/keeping-focus-diversity-parkinsons-research . Accessed 10 Oct. 2025. 

Tackling a Disease on a Global Scale, the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program, GP2: A New Generation of Opportunities: The American Journal of Human Genetics, www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(25)00284-8 . Accessed 11 Oct. 2025.