What role do genetics play in acquiring Parkinson's?

What role do genetics play in acquiring Parkinson's?

Neal Hermanowicz (Director of the Movement Disorders Program) gives expert video advice on: What causes Parkinson's?; What role does race play in Parkinson's?; What is a 'parkinsonian personality'? and more...

For the majority of cases of Parkinsons disease, they don't clearly run in families, in any kind of predictable fashion that we usually think about diseases that run in families. Increasingly, there are genes that are identified that may place people at risk for developing Parkinsons disease. To have that gene alone doesn't mean necessarily that somebody will get Parkinsons disease but it may enable them, under certain circumstances, to develop Parkinsons disease. One is called Parkin, P-A-R-K-I-N, which is found more often in younger people with Parkinsons disease, but also people who are of the typical age to get Parkinsons disease. They have other names, like PINK, not referring to the color, but they are acronyms of biochemical disorders. There's something else called LRRK, too, again referring to some enzymes that are influenced by this disease process.