By: Ida Persson

A connection between Parkinson's disease and type 2 diabetes has been found by an international team of researchers, led by Paul W. Franks.

A gene mutation that causes Parkinson’s disease can also increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This was found by an international research group including individuals from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, Danish National Research Center of Inflammation and Metabolism, Cambridge University and Heriot Watt University in Britain, and the Scripps Institute in Florida, USA. They were led by Paul W. Franks at Umeå University’s Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine.

The researchers studied the PINK1 gene (PTEN-induced kinase 1), which codes for the PINK 1 protein, in people from Scandinavia and Great Britain. Defects in the gene that inhibit mRNA, increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes are also connected to increased levels of blood fats. In fat cells in mice the researchers showed that the obstruction of the PINK 1 protein also causes the decreased production of another gene involved in lipid transport.