Plain English - LRRK2 G2019S Parkinson's disease with more benign phenotype than idiopathic

This research study compared patients with Parkinson's who carry the commonest gene mutation associated with the disease (called LRRK2), to patients with Parkinson's who do not carry this mutation. They found that on average patients with the mutation tended to have a milder form of Parkinson's (i.e. they had lower motor impairment scores and better scores on memory and other cognitive tests). 

Even though mutations in LRRK2 are the commonest genetic cause of Parkinson's, they are still pretty rare overall and affect about 1% of all patients with Parkinson's. This proportion is higher in North Africans (such as those in this study).

These findings in many ways match ones clinical impression as well. I would say on average patients with LRRK2 Parkinson's tend to have milder symptoms and a lower burden of non motor symptoms. These features may also be less prominent in the phase of the disease before diagnosis compared with Parkinson's that is not related to LRRK2. Of course, this is all 'on average'. On an individual basis it can be very tricky to choose between patients that do or don't have an underlying genetic cause, unless they are particular young when it starts or have a strong family history....

- Alastair Noyce

Acta Neurol Scand. 2018 Jul 10. doi: 10.1111/ane.12996. [Epub ahead of print]
Ben Romdhan S, Farhat N, Nasri A, Lesage S, Hdiji O, Ben Djebara M, Landoulsi Z, Stevanin G, Brice A, Damak M, Gouider R, Mhiri C.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ane.12996

OBJECTIVES: The LRRK2-G2019S mutation is the most common cause of Parkinson's disease (PD) in North Africa. G2019S-PD has been described as similar to idiopathic with minor clinical differences. The aim of this study was to determine the G2019S-related phenotype and to investigate gender and gene dosage effects on clinical features of G2019S carriers.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: The G2019S mutation was screened in 250 Tunisian patients with PD. Twenty-four patients carrying mutations in other PD genes were excluded. Logistic regression models were used to compare clinical features between the studied groups.

RESULTS: G2019S carriers (107 cases) and non-carriers (119 cases) were similar in disease duration, levodopa doses, and gender and phenotype distributions. However, carriers had a younger age at examination, higher level of education, and were more likely to report family history of PD and to develop PD at earlier age (P = 0.017). Adjusted for age, sex, disease duration, levodopa-equivalent dose and educational level, MMSE scores remained significantly higher (adjust P = 0.019) and UPDRS-III scores were lower (adjust P = 0.012) in the G2019S carriers than non-carriers. Demographic characteristics of men and women with G2019S mutation were similar, but men had higher level of education, better cognition (adjust P-value for educational level = 0.042) and less tendency towards depression than females (adjust P = 0.046). Furthermore, PD phenotype did not differ between the homozygous and heterozygous G2019S carriers.

CONCLUSION: In this study, G2019S carriers had a more benign phenotype than non-carriers. Cognitive impairment and depression were less common in G2019S male carriers compared with females. In addition, we found that LRRK2 gene dosage does not influence the severity of PD.