Association of the Polygenic Risk Score with the Incidence Risk of Parkinson's Disease and Cerebrospinal Fluid α-Synuclein in a Chinese Cohort

Parkinson's disease (PD) is attributed to interactions among genes and environmental and lifestyle factors, but the genetic architecture of PD is complex and not completely understood. To evaluate whether the genetic profile modifies PD development and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pathological biomarkers, we enrolled 418 PD patients and 426 age- and sex-matched normal controls. Forty-six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that were reported to be significantly associated with PD in large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs) were genotyped and analysed. The alleles associated with PD were used to build polygenic risk score (PRS) models to represent polygenic risk. The Cox proportional hazards model and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were used to evaluate the prediction value of the PRS for PD risk and age at onset. The CSF alpha-synuclein levels were measured in a subgroup of control subjects (n = 262), and its relationship with the PRS was analysed. We found that some SNPs identified from other populations had significant correlations with PD in our Chinese cohort. The PRS we built had prediction value for PD risk and age at onset. The CSF alpha-synuclein level had no correlation with the PRS in normal subjects.