HOUSTONâJustin Friendâs parents have doctoral degrees and have worked as university lecturers and researchers. So Mr. Friend might have been expected to head for a university after graduating from high school in Bryan, Texas, five years ago. Instead, he attended Texas State Technical College in Waco, and received a two-year degree in welding.
A flurry of emergent research has linked mitochondrial dysfunction to the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. Mitochondrial dysfunction results in impaired ATP generation, loss of cellular repair mechanisms, and cellular inefficiency.
To date, abnormalities in particular genes have been linked to an elevated risk of Parkinsonâs disease. The three most common genes related to Parkinsonâs are PARK2 (parkin), LRRK2 (leucine-rich repeat kinase 2) and glucocerebrosidase (GBA). Mutations in the GBA gene are most common in the general population. And mutations in the LLRK2 gene are most common in certain ethnic groups, accounting for about 30 to 40 percent of Parkinsonâs cases in North African Arabs and about 15 percent of Parkinsonâs cases in people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.