Gene Works with Pesticides to Up Parkinson's Risk
 (NY, Reuters Health, 4/1//04)

Dr. Alexis Elbaz, from Hopital de la Salpetriere in Paris, and team, tested the DNA of 247 Parkinson's disease patients and 676 healthy participants in the French health insurance organization for farmers. Since previous studies had linked Parkinson’s disease and pesticide exposure, the investigators focused on the CYP2D6 gene, which produces an enzyme [cytochrome P450 D6 (CYP2D6)] that renders pesticides less harmful to the body. The researchers found that, in general, subjects who had been exposed to pesticides were more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than those who had not and the risk was further magnified for those who had a variant of the CYP2D6 gene that produces a less effective form of the enzyme. Exposed subjects who had only variant copies of CYP2D6 had the highest Parkinson’s risk, but those who had not been exposed to pesticides did not have an increased risk, regardless of whether they carried the gene variant or not.