It's official, the Ashkenazi Jews and Arabs Share Same Gene Mutation -- from two separate sources the study is confirmed
Jason P
January 26, 2006
LA Times -- Science
THE NATION
Genetic Link to Parkinson's Disease Is Detected in 2 Ethnic Groups,
Scientists say a mutation causes 18% of cases in Ashkenazi Jews and 37%
in North African Arabs.
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writer
A recently discovered mutant gene causes 18% of Parkinson's disease
cases in Ashkenazi Jews and 37% in North African Arabs - a surprising
finding because genetics had been thought to play only a small role in
the disorder.
The discovery will allow genetic counseling and early diagnosis of the
disease in the affected groups, said Dr. Susan B. Bressman, a
neurologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and
the leader of one of two studies on the subject published today in the
New England Journal of Medicine.
Although there is no known way to prevent development of the brain
disorder, which affects at least half a million Americans, early
diagnosis would allow expanded use of newer drugs that delay its onset.
The fact that the gene plays such a large role in the two ethnic groups
suggests that other mutated genes - perhaps different variants of
this one - cause the disease in other ethnic groups.
The mutant form of the gene LRRK2 was linked to Parkinson's in late
2004 by two groups, a joint U.S.-Spanish team and one at the University
of Tubingen in Germany.
It was identified in members of a large family in the Basque region of
Spain, and the protein it produces was given the name Dardarin, Basque
for "tremor."
It was the third gene linked to the disorder. The two other genes
produce unusual forms of Parkinson's disease that have an earlier onset
and a more aggressive course.
LRRK2 produces symptoms very similar to those observed in the majority
of Parkinson's patients, although it is found in only 2% to 3% of
people with the disease.
Bressman and her colleagues studied DNA from 120 Ashkenazi Jews with
Parkinson's disease and 317 healthy Ashkenazi Jews. Ashkenazim, or Jews
of Eastern European descent, account for an estimated 80% of Jews
worldwide.
The researchers found that 18% of those with Parkinson's carried the
specific mutation, compared with about 1% of the healthy subjects -
meaning that the presence of the gene in Ashkenazim increased the risk
of developing Parkinson's 15 to 20 times. Among patients with a family
history of the disorder, 30% carried the mutant gene.
In a similar study led by Dr. Alexis Brice and geneticist Suzanne
Lesage of the French research institute INSERM, the team found that
about 30% of North Africans with Parkinson's carried the specific
mutation, compared with 3% of the healthy subjects. Among North African
Arabs with the disease, the incidence of the gene rose to 37%.
"The importance of genetics [in Parkinson's disease] has been disputed
for years and years," Bressman said. Most people thought it was
primarily environmental in origin, perhaps from pesticides or some
other toxin.
Now, in at least two ethnic groups, genetics "is very important," she
said.
Dr. Neil Risch of UC San Francisco, who participated in Bressman's
study, said the mutation probably arose in a common ancestor of the
Jews and Arabs several thousand years ago. The mutation, he added, is
probably important in multiple Middle Eastern populations.
Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times
-- -- -- --
MedPage Today
By Michael Smith
Staff Writer
Reviewed by Rubeen K. Israni, M.D., Fellow, Renal-Electrolyte and
Hypertension Division, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
January 25, 2006
NEW YORK, Jan. 25 - A large proportion of Ashkenazi Jews and North
African Arabs with Parkinson's disease carry the same single gene
mutation, according to two studies.
The mutation -- apparently derived from a single "founder"
individual several centuries ago -- was found in 18.3% of a cohort of
120 Ashkenazi Jews treated for Parkinson's at the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine and Beth Israel Medical Center here.
The same mutation was found in 39% of a cohort of 76 Arabs with the
disease, French researcher said. Both studies were published as letters
in the Jan. 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The single-base-pair alteration, dubbed G2019S, is found on exon 41 of
the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2), according to Laurie Ozelius,
Ph.D., of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and lead author of
the paper describing the Jewish cohort.
Overall, Dr. Ozelius said, 22 of the 120 Parkinson's patients carried
the mutation, but only four of 317 controls with the same ethnic
background carried the mutation. Carrying the mutation gave an odds
ratio for disease of 17.6, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from
5.9 to 52.2.
Also, the mutation was found in 11 of 37 (29.7%) of patients with a
familial pattern of disease, and 11 of 83 (13.3%) patients with
apparently sporadic disease.
One implication of the finding, Dr. Ozelius said in an interview, is
that many patients thought of as having sporadic disease probably have
familial -- but unknown or unrecognized -- connections.
"What this is telling us is that there is this group of people who
supposedly have sporadic Parkinson's, but actually have a genetic
form of the disease," she said.
The gene mutation has been shown to be due to a single founder in
European populations, where it is carried by about 5% of familial
patients and 1% of sporadic patients -- rates much lower than those
found by the New York group, Dr. Ozelius said.
However, genetic markers in and surrounding the altered gene in the
Jewish cohort show that it is identical to the gene found in the
European studies. "The mutation is the same mutation as that in the
European population - it's due to the same founder," Dr. Ozelius
said.
The New York results, combined with the Arab study, which also found
the same genetic pattern, imply that the gene mutation has its origins
in the Middle East. Dr. Ozelius said some of her colleagues are now
trying to estimate when it first appeared.
In the other study, researchers from the French Parkinson's Disease
Study Group examined a cohort of 104 Parkinson's patients in North
Africa, including 76 Arabs, 18 Europeans born in North Africa, six
Sephardic Jews, and four black Africans, as well as a cohort of 151
healthy Arab controls.
The study showed that 31 of the 104 patients (30%) carried the
mutation, according to Suzanne Lesage, Ph.D., of the French national
institute for health and medical research's unit 679 in Paris, and
lead author of the study.
But all but one of the carriers was Arab, Dr. Lesage and colleagues
found, and the other carrier was a Sephardic Jew.
Among the 76 Arab patients, the researchers found, 10 of the 27
familial cases (37%) carried the mutation and 20 of the 49 sporadic
cases (41%) carried the mutation. Two of the controls were also found
to have the mutation. Carrying the mutation gave an odds ratio for
disease of 48.6 (95% CI 11.2 to 211) in Arab patients.
Both groups of researchers noted that the finding will have
implications for genetic testing and counseling, although the issue is
fraught with difficulty since there is no cure for the disease.
But Dr. Ozelius said the findings may also make it possible to tease
out some of the earliest signs of Parkinson's disease, because
genetic screening would find carriers of the mutated gene long before
they develop symptoms.
"This really opens up our ability to look at a homogenous population
-- everyone with the same mutation -- and look at pre-clinical
things," she said.
Primary source: New England Journal Of Medicine
Source reference:
Ozelius LJ et al. LRRK2 G2019S as a Cause of Parkinson's Disease in
Ashkenazi Jews. N Engl J Med 2006;354:424-25.
Additional source: New England Journal Of Medicine
Source reference:
Lesage S et al. LRRK2 G2019S as a Cause of Parkinson's Disease in
North African Arabs. N Engl J Med 2006;354:422-23
© 2004-6 MedPage Today, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Borked Pseudo Mailed
In message <1138286486.7...@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>
"Jason P" <jas...@netscape.net> wrote:
<January 26, 2006
<LA Times -- Science
<
<THE NATION
<
<Genetic Link to Parkinson's Disease Is Detected in 2 Ethnic Groups,
<Scientists say a mutation causes 18% of cases in Ashkenazi Jews and 37%
<in North African Arabs.
<
<By Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writer
<
<A recently discovered mutant gene causes 18% of Parkinson's disease
<cases in Ashkenazi Jews and 37% in North African Arabs - a surprising
<finding because genetics had been thought to play only a small role in
<the disorder.
...
<
<Bressman and her colleagues studied DNA from 120 Ashkenazi Jews with
<Parkinson's disease and 317 healthy Ashkenazi Jews. Ashkenazim, or Jews
<of Eastern European descent, account for an estimated 80% of Jews
<worldwide.
...
<Now, in at least two ethnic groups, genetics "is very important," she
<said.
<
<Dr. Neil Risch of UC San Francisco, who participated in Bressman's
<study, said the mutation probably arose in a common ancestor of the
<Jews and Arabs several thousand years ago. The mutation, he added, is
<probably important in multiple Middle Eastern populations.
You've posted a couple like this but your message was unclear.
My response is that this research and its ilk looks like a
counter-argument being formulated against the thesis developed by
Arthur Koestler in his book The Thirteenth Tribe that the 80% of
world 'Jewry' referred to does not originate from the middle east
at all. The intended message of the quoted research seems to be
that Ashkenazim have a common ancestry with certain Arabs (Semitics).
This is no doubt true, in the sense we are all descended from an
African proto-mother. Beyond that the findings seem somewhat more
debatable. Note the sources: the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
and Beth Israel Medical Center (etc.).
Here's some of the material Koestler based his thesis on. Please post
later (after 1976) research which contradicts.
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(Istanbul, 1937).
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-- ANNALS OF ADMONT, Klebel, E., "Eine neu aufgefundene Salzburger
Geschichtsquelle", MITTEILUNGEN DER GESELLSCHAFT FUR SALZBURGER LANDESKUNDE,
1921.
-- Arne, T.J., "La Suede et l'Orient", ARCHIVES D'ETUDES ORIENTATES, 8°. v.8,
Upsala, 1914.
-- Artamonov, M.I., STUDIES IN ANCIENT KHAZAR HISTORY (in Russian) (Leningrad,
1936).
-- Artamonov, M. I., KHAZAR HISTORY (in Russian) (Leningrad, 1962).
-- Bader, O.H., STUDIES OF THE KAMA ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION (in Russian)
(Kharkhov, 1953).
-- Al-Bakri, BOOK OF KINGDOMS AND ROADS, French tr. by Defremery, _/. ASTATINE,
1849.
-- Ballas, J.A., BEITRAGE ZUR KENNTNIS DER TRIERISCHEN VOLKSSPRACHE (1903).
-- Bar Hebraeus, CHRONOGRAPHY (Oxford, 1932).
-- Barker, F., "Crusades" in ENC. BRITANNICA, 1973 printing.
-- Baron. S.W., A SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE JEWS, Vols. III and IV
(New York, 1957).
-- Bartha, A., A IX-X SZDZADI MAGYAR TARSADALOM (Hungarian Society in the 9th-
10th Centuries) (Budapest, 1968).
-- Barthold, V., see Gardezi and HUDUD AL ALAM.
-- Beddoe, J., "On the Physical Characters of the Jews", TRANS. ETHN. SOC., Vol.
I pp. 222-37, London, 1861.
-- Ben Barzillay, Jehudah, SEFER HA-ITTIM ("Book of the Festivals") (CIRCA
1100).
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Neubauer, 1,79-
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and ed., 2 vols. (London and Berlin, 1841).
-- Blake, R. P., and Frye, R.N., "Notes on the Risala of Ibn Fadlan" in
BYZANTINA METABYZANTINA, Vol. I, Part II, 1949.
-- Brutzkus, J., "Chasaren" in JEWISH ENC. (New York, 1901-06).
-- Bury, J.B., A HISTORY OF THE EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE (London, 1912).
-- Bury, J.B., BYZANTINISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT XIV, pp. 511-70. Buxtorf, J., fil.,
ed., Jehuda Halevi, LIBER COSRI (Basle 1660).
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Extra Series v. 13 (Hakluyt Soc., 1903).
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(2nd ed., London, 1901).
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-- Goeje, de, see Gibb, H. A. R.
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-- Gregoire, H., "Le "Glozel" Khazare". BYZANTION. 1937, pp. 225-66.
-- Halevi, Jehuda, KITAB AL KHAZARI, tr. Hirschfeld, new revised ed. (London,
1931); see also Buxtorf, J., fil.
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Swjatoslaws (um 960), als Bettrag zur alien Geschichte Sud-Russlands" in
RUSSISCHE REVUE, Vol. VI, 1875, pp. 69-97.
-- Harkavy, A.E., ALTJUDISCHE DENKMALER AUS DER KRIM, Memoirs of the Russian
Academy (1876).
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Barthold V., ed. (Leningrad, 1930), translation and explanation, Minorsky, V.
(London. 1937).
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See also Ouseley, Sir W.
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OSTEUROPAS, III, 1-10.
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-- Jacobs, J., "On the Racial Characteristics of Modern Jews", J. ANTHTROP.
INST., Vol. XV, pp. 23-62,1886.
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and New York, 1955; Danube ed., 1970).
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Russian) (Leningrad, 1932).
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Precious Stones"), French tr., 9 vol. (Paris, 1861-77).
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GEOGRAPHORUM ARABICA III, 3 (Bonn).
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Anonyma
Borked Pseudo Mailed <nob...@pseudo.borked.net> conjectured:
^^^
I've consulted Koestler's Thirteenth Tribe book and find in:
Part One - Rise and Fall of the Khazars, II-Conversion, 1,
the following material which suggests that Semitic Jews also
came to be present in the Khazar state as a result of fleeing
there in order to escape persecution elsewhere. Does this help
account for the research findings that Ashkenazi Jews reputedly
share the same genetic background as North African Arabs
(mainly Semitics)?
<quote>
Though the Khazar court's conversion was no doubt politically
motivated, it would still be absurd to imagine that they embraced
overnight, blindly, a religion whose tenets were unknown to them.
In fact, however, they had been well acquainted with Jews and
their religious observances for at least a century before the
conversion, through the continued influx of refugees from
religious persecution in Byzantium, and to a lesser extent from
countries in Asia Minor conquered by the Arabs. We know that
Khazaria was a relatively civilized country among the Barbarians
of the North, yet not committed to either of the militant creeds,
and so it became a natural haven for the periodic exodus of Jews
under Byzantine rule, threatened by forced conversion and other
pressures. Persecution in varied forms had started with Justinian
I (527-65), and assumed particularly vicious forms under Heraclius
in the seventh century, Leo III in the eighth, Basil and Leo IV in
the ninth, Romanus in the tenth. Thus Leo III, who ruled during
the two decades immediately preceding the Khazar conversion to
Judaism, "attempted to end the anomaly [of the tolerated status of
Jews] at one blow, by ordering all his Jewish subjects to be
baptized". {3} Although the implementation of the order seemed to
have been rather ineffective, it led to the flight of a
considerable number of Jews from Byzantium.
</unquote>
Kevin Brook
> Semitic Jews also came to be present in the Khazar state as a result
> of fleeing there in order to escape persecution elsewhere.
> Does this help account for the research findings that Ashkenazi Jews reputedly
> share the same genetic background as North African Arabs (mainly Semitics)?
The south-to-north migrations of refugees did take place. However,
they don't fully explain why Ashkenazi Jews are related to Arabs and
other Middle Easterners. The main explanation is that German Jews and
Czech Jews came in large numbers to Poland and Belarus. These
west-to-east migrations are actually attested in many verifiable
documents, contrary to Koestler's allegation that such migrations are
hardly documented at all. Ironically, Koestler suffered in his last
years from Parkinson's Disease, the same disease which this new study
cited in this thread shows often comes to Ashkenazi Jews from a Middle
Eastern or North African (rather than Khazar or Slavic) source.
Koestler's book "The Thirteenth Tribe" is full of distortions and
mistakes. I disproved many of his claims in my article "The Origins of
East European Jews" in Russian History/Histoire Russe volume 30,
numbers 1-2 (Spring-Summer 2003 issue), pages 1-22. You'll find some
more details in the Second Edition of my book "The Jews of Khazaria",
to be released towards the end of 2006 by Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers.
> Though the Khazar court's conversion was no doubt politically motivated
Don't be so sure about that.
> In fact, however, they had been well acquainted with Jews and
> their religious observances for at least a century before the
> conversion, through the continued influx of refugees from
> religious persecution in Byzantium, and to a lesser extent from
> countries in Asia Minor conquered by the Arabs.
Exactly. Thank you for expressing your observations.
With my best wishes,
Kevin Brook
http://www.khazaria.com/