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Eye movements are fundamental diagnostic and progression markers of various neurological diseases, including those affecting the cerebellum. Despite the high prevalence of abnormal eye movements in patients with cerebellar disorders, the traditional rating scales do not focus on abnormal eye movements. We formed a consortium of neurologists focusing on cerebellar disorders. The consortium aimed to design and validate a novel Scale for Ocular motor Disorders in Ataxia (SODA). The primary purpose of the scale is to determine the extent of ocular motor deficits due to various phenomenologies. A higher score on the scale would suggest a broader range of eye movement deficits. The scale was designed such that it is easy to implement by non-specialized neurological care providers. The scale was not designed to measure each ocular motor dysfunction's severity objectively. Our validation studies revealed that the scale reliably measured the extent of saccade abnormalities and nystagmus. We found a lack of correlation between the total SODA score and the total International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale (ICARS), Scale for Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA), or Brief Ataxia Rating Scale (BARS). One explanation is that conventionally reported scales are not dedicated to eye movement disorders; and when present, the measure of ocular motor function is only one subsection of the ataxia rating scales. It is also possible that the severity of ataxias does not correlate with eye movement abnormalities. Nevertheless, the SODA met the consortium's primary goal: to prepare a simple outcome measure that can identify ocular motor dysfunction in patients with cerebellar ataxia., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no conflict of interest pertinent to this work., (Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Saposin C (SapC), encoded by PSAP, is required for the activity of glucocerebrosidase, encoded by GBA. Although GBA mutations have been studied thoroughly in Parkinson disease (PD), genetic studies on SapC are still lacking. PSAP was sequenced in 1123 PD patients and 1153 controls, and data from additional 1167 patients and 1685 controls were examined. A total of 6 patients had SapC mutations in the 2 combined cohorts, but no statistically significant association after correction for multiple comparisons was found. Larger studies are necessary to examine the role of very rare SapC variants in PD., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

DNAJC13 mutations have been suggested to cause Parkinson's disease (PD), yet subsequent studies reported conflicting results on this association. In the present study, we sequenced the coding region of DNAJC13 in a French-Canadian/French cohort of 528 PD patients and 692 controls. A total of 62 (11.7%) carriers of rare DNAJC13 variants were identified among the PD patients compared with 82 (11.8%) among controls (p = 1.0). Two variants that were previously suggested to be associated with PD, p.R1516H and p.L2170W, were identified with similar directions of association as previously reported. The p.R1516H was found in 2 (0.4%) patients versus 6 (0.9%, nonsignificant) controls and the p.L2170W variant was found in 9 (1.7%) patients and 5 (0.7%, nonsignificant) controls. Meta-analysis with previous reports resulted in odds ratios of 0.32 (95% confidence interval = 0.15-0.68, p = 0.0037) and 2.68 (95% confidence interval = 1.32-5.42, p = 0.007), respectively. Our results provide some support for the possibility that specific DNAJC13 variants may play a minor role in PD susceptibility, although studies in additional populations are necessary., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The MC1R gene, suggested to be involved in Parkinson disease (PD) and melanoma, was sequenced in PD patients (n = 539) and controls (n = 265) from New York, and PD patients (n = 551), rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) patients (n = 351), and controls (n = 956) of European ancestry. Sixty-eight MC1R variants were identified, including 7 common variants with frequency > 0.01. None of the common variants was associated with PD or RBD in the different regression models. In a meta-analysis with fixed-effect model, the p.R160W variant was associated with an increased risk for PD (odds ratio = 1.22, 95% confidence interval = 1.02-1.47, p = 0.03) but with significant heterogeneity (p = 0.048). Removing one study that introduced the heterogeneity resulted in nonsignificant association (odds ratio = 1.11, 95% confidence interval, 0.92-1.35, p = 0.27, heterogeneity p = 0.57). Rare variants had similar frequencies in patients and controls (10.54% and 10.15%, respectively, p = 0.75), and no cumulative effect of carrying more than one MC1R variant was found. The present study does not support a role for the MC1R p.R160W and other variants in susceptibility for PD or RBD., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)