Evidence for a common pathway linking neurodegenerative diseases

In the largest Parkinson's disease genome-wide association studies to date, common variants in three familiar genes—SNCA, MAPT and LRRK2—and two new loci are found to increase disease susceptibility. The studies suggest genetic heterogeneity for Parkinson's disease risk in different human populations and lend support to the idea of a common pathway for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.