ITPKB and ZNF184 are associated with Parkinson's disease risk in East Asians

A recent meta-analysis of Parkinson's disease (PD) genome-wide association studies has identified 17 novel risk loci in the European population. We aim to assess if these reported novel risk loci are similarly implicated in PD risk within the East Asian population by analyzing the reported risk single nucleotide polymorphism or proxy single nucleotide polymorphism in 14,006 East Asian samples (779 patients and 13,227 controls). We found that 9 of the 17 reported novel PD risk loci showed very similar effects in Europeans and East Asians (I2 = 0 to 10.7%), of which 2 loci ITPKB and ZNF184 were significantly associated with PD in our samples. Two of the reported risk loci, ANK2/CAMK2D and CTSB, were non-polymorphic in East Asians and therefore not implicated in PD risk in the East Asian population. Given the small effect sizes of these risk loci, further validation is needed in additional Asian samples. •Tested 17 novel PD risk loci identified by European GWAS in 14,006 East Asian samples.•ITPKB and ZNF184 showed significant association (p < 0.05) with PD in East Asians.•Nine risk loci showed comparable effects between Europeans and East Asians.•Two novel PD risk loci are non-polymorphic in East Asians.•Further validation and meta-analysis with additional Asian samples is needed.