Association of AXIN1 With Parkinson's Disease in a Taiwanese Population

Objective A meta-analysis of locus-based genome-wide association studies recently identified a relationship between AXIN1 and Parkinson's disease (PD). Few studies of Asian populations, however, have reported such a genetic association. The influences of rs13337493, rs758033, and rs2361988, three PD-associated genetic variants of AXIN1, were investigated in the present study because AXIN1 is related to Wnt/beta-catenin signaling. Methods A total of 2,418 individuals were enrolled in our Taiwanese cohort for analysis of the genotypic and allelic frequency. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis was employed for rs13337493 genotyping, and the Agena MassARRAY platform (Agena Bioscience, San Diego, CA, USA) was used for rs758033 and rs2361988 genotyping in 672 patients with PD and 392 controls. Taiwan Biobank data of another 1,354 healthy controls were subjected to whole-genome sequencing performed using Illumina platforms at approximately 30x average depth. Results Our results revealed that rs758033 {odds ratios [OR] (95% confidence interval [CI]) = 0.267 [0.064, 0.795], p = 0.014} was associated with the risk of PD, and there was a trend toward a protective effect of rs2361988 (OR [95% CI] = 0.296 [0.071, 0.884], p = 0.026) under the recessive model The TT genotype of rs758033 (OR [95% CI] = 0.271 [0.065, 0.805], p = 0.015) and the CC genotype of rs2361988 (OR [95% CI] = 0.305 [0.073, 0.913], p = 0.031) were less common in the PD group than in the non-PD group. Conclusion Our findings indicate that the rs758033 and rs2361988 polymorphisms of AXIN1 may affect the risk of PD in the Taiwanese population.