Research article

Genetic variability of histamine receptors in patients with Parkinson's disease

Elena García-Martín¹ , P Ayuso¹ , Antonio Luengo² , Carmen Martínez³ and José AG Agúndez³

¹  Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain

²  Service of Neurology, La Princesa University Hospital, Madrid, Spain

³  Department of Pharmacology & Psychiatry, Medical School, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain

author email corresponding author email

BMC Medical Genetics 2008, 9:15doi:10.1186/1471-2350-9-15

Published:	17 March 2008

Abstract

Background

Changes in the density and expression of histamine receptors (HRH) have been detected in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, and HRH antagonists bring about improvements in motor and other symptoms, thus suggesting that HRH play a role in the clinical response of PD patients. This study is aimed to analyse polymorphic variations of HRH in patients with PD.

Methods

Leukocytary DNA from 195 PD patients and a control group of 231 unrelated healthy individuals was studied for the nonsynonymous HRH1Leu449Ser and the promoter HRH2G-1018A polymorphisms by using amplification-restriction analyses.

Results

The HRH1Leu449Ser amino acid substitution was identified in two women with late-onset PD whereas it was not observed among healthy subjects. The HRH2G-1018A polymorphism was observed with allele frequencies = 3.59 (95% CI = 1.74–5.44) and 5.0 (95% CI = 3.00–6.96) for patients with PD and healthy controls, respectively. These frequencies were independent of gender and age of onset of the disease. Multiple comparison analyses revealed that differences were not statistically significant.

Conclusion

These results indicate that the polymorphisms analyzed are not a major risk factor for PD, although the HRH1Leu449Ser amino acid substitution might be related to PD.