| 1. |
- Wilhelmson, Anna S K, et al.
(author)
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Testosterone is an endogenous regulator of BAFF and splenic B cell number
- 2018
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In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 9:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Testosterone deficiency in men is associated with increased risk for autoimmunity and increased B cell numbers through unknown mechanisms. Here we show that testosterone regulates the cytokine BAFF, an essential survival factor for B cells. Male mice lacking the androgen receptor have increased splenic B cell numbers, serum BAFF levels and splenic Baff mRNA. Testosterone deficiency by castration causes expansion of BAFF-producing fibro-blastic reticular cells (FRCs) in spleen, which may be coupled to lower splenic noradrenaline levels in castrated males, as an alpha-adrenergic agonist decreases splenic FRC number in vitro. Antibody-mediated blockade of the BAFF receptor or treatment with the neurotoxin 6-hydroxydopamine revert the increased splenic B cell numbers induced by castration. Among healthy men, serum BAFF levels are higher in men with low testosterone. Our study uncovers a previously unrecognized regulation of BAFF by testosterone and raises important questions about BAFF in testosterone-mediated protection against autoimmunity.
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| 2. |
- Ahmadi, Ahmad, et al.
(author)
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Association of a protective paraoxonase 1 (PON1) polymorphism in Parkinson's disease
- 2012
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In: Neuroscience Letters. - : Elsevier BV. - 0304-3940 .- 1872-7972. ; 522:1, s. 30-35
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Pesticide exposure has been suggested to increase the risk to develop Parkinson's disease (PD). The arylesterase paraoxonase 1 (PON1) is mainly expressed in the liver and hydrolyzes organophosphates such as pesticides. The polymorphism Leu54Met (rs854560) in PON1, impairing enzyme activity and leading to decreased PON1 expression levels, has been reported to be associated with Parkinson's disease (PD). PON1 is part of a cluster on chromosome 7q21.3 together with PON2 and PON3. We investigated the occurrence of four additional polymorphisms in PON1 and two in PON2 in a Swedish PD case-control material. We found a significant association (p = 0.007) with a PON1 promoter polymorphism, rs854571. The minor allele was more common among controls than PD cases which suggest a protective effect. This is strengthened by the fact that rs854571 is in strong linkage disequilibrium with another PON1 promoter polymorphism, rs854572, reported to increase PON1 gene expression. Our findings support the hypothesis that PON1 is involved in the etiology of PD and that higher PON1 levels are reducing the risk for PD. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 3. |
- Anvret, Anna, et al.
(author)
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DJ-1 Mutations are Rare in a Swedish Parkinson Cohort.
- 2011
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In: The open neurology journal. - 1874-205X. ; 5, s. 8-11
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Mutations in the PARK7 gene, DJ-1, have been reported to cause early-onset and familial Parkinson's disease (PD). The function of DJ-1 and how it contributes to the development of the disease is not clear today, but several studies report that DJ-1 is responsive to oxidative stress and important for the maintenance of mitochondria. We have screened three coding regions of DJ-1 (exon 2, 5 and 7) in a Swedish Parkinson cohort. The Swedish PD material consisted of 67 patients with a self reported positive family history of PD and 77 patients with early-onset of disease (≤50 years old). We detected two patients with the previously reported synonymous mutation, Ala167Ala (c.501A>G, rs71653621), in exon 7. No Ala167Ala carriers were identified among 213 neurologically healthy Swedish controls. Mechanisms by which the synonymous Ala167Ala mutation can have consequences are unknown. It may affect the mRNA stability, secondary structure of mRNA, synthesis, turnover, protein folding and function. We could show a 1.3% decrease in DJ-1 mRNA folding energy in the A
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| 4. |
- Anvret, Anna, et al.
(author)
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Possible involvement of a mitochondrial translation initiation factor 3 variant causing decreased mRNA levels in Parkinson's disease.
- 2010
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In: Parkinson's disease. - : Hindawi Limited. - 2042-0080. ; 2010
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Genes important for mitochondrial function have been implicated in Parkinson's disease (PD). Mitochondrial translation initiation factor 3 (MTIF3) is a nuclear encoded protein required for the initiation of complex formation on mitochondrial ribosomes. Dysfunction of MTIF3 may impair mitochondrial function and dopamine neurons appear to be particularly vulnerable to oxidative stress, which may relate to their degeneration in PD. An association was recently reported between the synonymous rs7669(C>T) in MTIF3 and PD in a German case-control material. We investigated rs7669 in a Swedish Parkinson case-control material. The study revealed no significant association of the individual genotypes or alleles with PD. When comparing the combined TT/CT-genotypes versus the CC-genotype, we observed a significant association (P = .0473) with PD. We also demonstrated that the TT-genotype causes a significant decrease in MTIF3 mRNA expression compared to the CC-genotype (P = .0163). Our findings support the hypothesis that MTIF3 may be involved in the etiology of PD.
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| 5. |
- Belin, Andrea Carmine, et al.
(author)
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Association study of two genetic variants in mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
- 2007
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In: Neuroscience letters. - : Elsevier BV. - 0304-3940. ; 420:3, s. 257-62
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Mitochondrial (mt) dysfunction has been implicated in Alzheimer's (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). Mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) is needed for mtDNA maintenance, regulating mtDNA copy number and is absolutely required for transcriptional initiation at mtDNA promoters. Two genetic variants in TFAM have been reported to be associated with AD in a Caucasian case-control material collected from Germany, Switzerland and Italy. One of these variants was reported to show a tendency for association with AD in a pooled Scottish and Swedish case-control material and the other variant was reported to be associated with AD in a recent meta-analysis. We investigated these two genetic variants, rs1937 and rs2306604, in an AD and a PD case-control material, both from Sweden and found significant genotypic as well as allelic association to marker rs2306604 in the AD case-control material (P=0.05 and P=0.03, respectively), where the A-allele appears to increase risk for developing AD. No association was observed for marker rs1937. We did not find any association in the PD case-control material for either of the two markers. The distribution of the two-locus haplotype frequencies (based on rs1937 and rs2306604) did not differ significantly between affected individuals and controls in the two sample sets. However, the global P-value for haplotypic association testing indicated borderline association in the AD sample set. Our data suggests that the rs2306604 A-allele could be a moderate risk factor for AD, which is supported by the recent meta-analysis.
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| 6. |
- Bergman, Olle, 1978, et al.
(author)
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Do polymorphisms in transcription factors LMX1A and LMX1B influence the risk for Parkinson's disease?
- 2009
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In: Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996). - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1435-1463 .- 0300-9564. ; 116:3, s. 333-8
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The key symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) are caused by degeneration of dopamine neurons originating in substantia nigra. Whereas, transcription factor LMX1A is crucial for the differentiation of mesencephalic dopamine neurons, LMX1B appears to be important for both the development and the survival of these cells. The aim of this study was to investigate if genetic variation in LMX1A and LMX1B differs between patients with PD (n = 357) and control subjects (n = 1428) by genotyping 33 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in LMX1A and 11 SNPs in LMX1B. Three SNPs in LMX1A and one in LMX1B were associated with PD. After splitting for gender, six SNPs were associated with PD in women and four in men. The significances obtained did not survive correction for multiple testing, and our results should hence be interpreted with caution, but are partly in line with a previous report, and should thus be of sufficient interest to encourage further studies of these genes in PD.
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| 7. |
- Bergman, Olle, 1978, et al.
(author)
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PITX3 polymorphism is associated with early onset Parkinson's disease.
- 2010
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In: Neurobiology of aging. - : Elsevier BV. - 1558-1497 .- 0197-4580. ; 31:1, s. 114-117
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- PITX3 is a transcription factor of importance for the differentiation and survival of midbrain dopaminergic neurons, the gene of which is disrupted in a putative mouse model for Parkinson's disease (PD). The A-allele of a HapMap tagging SNP (rs4919621) that was genotyped in a population of 361 PD patients, 69 of which had early onset, and in 333 controls, was significantly more common in PD patients with an early age of onset when compared either to controls (p=0.002) or to PD patients with late onset (p=0.001). In contrast, a previous finding suggesting a SNP (rs3758549) in the putative promoter region of the PITX3 gene to be associated with PD could not be replicated.
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| 8. |
- Buervenich, Silvia, et al.
(author)
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A rare truncating mutation in ADH1C (G78Stop) shows significant association with Parkinson disease in a large international sample.
- 2005
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In: Archives of neurology. - : American Medical Association (AMA). - 0003-9942. ; 62:1, s. 74-8
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs) may be involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders because of their multiple roles in detoxification pathways and retinoic acid synthesis. In a previous study, significant association of an ADH class IV allele with Parkinson disease (PD) was found in a Swedish sample. PATIENTS: The previously associated single-nucleotide polymorphism plus 12 further polymorphisms in the ADH cluster on human chromosome 4q23 were screened for association in an extension of the original sample that now included 123 Swedish PD patients and 127 geographically matched control subjects. A rare nonsense single-nucleotide polymorphism in ADH1C (G78stop, rs283413) was identified in 3 of these patients but in no controls. To obtain sufficient power to detect a possible association of this rare variant with disease, we screened a large international sample of 1076 PD patients of European ancestry and 940 matched controls. RESULTS: The previously identified association with an ADH class IV allele remained significant (P<.02) in the extended Swedish study. Furthermore, in the international collaboration, the G78stop mutation in ADH1C was found in 22 (2.0%) of the PD patients but only in 6 controls (0.6%). This association was statistically significant (chi(2)(1) = 7.5; 2-sided P = .007; odds ratio, 3.25 [95% confidence interval, 1.31-8.05]). In addition, the G78stop mutation was identified in 4 (10.0%) of 40 Caucasian index cases with PD with mainly hereditary forms of the disorder. CONCLUSION: Findings presented herein provide further evidence for mutations in genes encoding ADHs as genetic risk factors for PD.
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| 9. |
- Carmine Belin, Andrea, et al.
(author)
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Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) mutations in a Swedish Parkinson cohort and a healthy nonagenarian.
- 2006
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In: Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society. - : Wiley. - 0885-3185. ; 21:10, s. 1731-4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Specific variants of Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) have been shown to associate with Parkinson's disease (PD). Several mutations have been found in PD populations from different parts of the world. We investigated the occurrence of three mutations (R1441G/C/H, G2019S, and I2020T) in our Swedish case-control material and identified four carriers of the G2019S mutation in 284 PD cases and 1 95-year-old carrier in 305 controls. The other two variants were absent in our material. We conclude that the LRRK2 G2019S mutation constitutes a significant factor for PD in the Swedish population and that it is not completely penetrant.
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| 10. |
- Carmine Belin, Andrea, et al.
(author)
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S18Y in ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) associated with decreased risk of Parkinson's disease in Sweden.
- 2007
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In: Parkinsonism & related disorders. - : Elsevier BV. - 1353-8020. ; 13:5, s. 295-8
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) is a neuron-specific enzyme that removes ubiquitin from the C-terminal end of substrates and a component of the ubiquitin-proteasome system. A protective effect of a UCH-L1 variant, S18Y, was suggested since the common variant was found to be inversely associated with sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD). We investigated the association of S18Y in our Swedish PD material. The tyrosine variant was significantly inversely associated with PD (P=0.049) and with a low age of onset (50 years) (P=0.017) in the case-control material, supporting the hypothesis of a protective function.
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