Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease and affects more than one million elderly Americans. As the population ages, the burden of PD is expected to increase. Although there are effective measures to control the symptoms of PD, patients eventually develop severe physical and mental disabilities and often die of complications.
My research aims to ascertain the environmental and genetic causes of PD and to characterize high-risk populations through research on pre-motor symptoms and biomarkers. Genes and environmental factors, alone or in combination, contribute to PD development. Over years, our research has contributed to a better understanding of the role of environmental factors in Parkinson's etiology, for example, on smoking, coffee drinking, infections, and use of certain medications. In the past year, we investigated some other potential risk factors for PD. PD is more common in men than in women;accordingly it has been hypothesized that estrogen may be protective. However, using data from the Parkinson's Genes and Environmental Studies, we did not identify associations between hormonal therapy or reproductive factors and PD risk (Mov Disord 2014). We previously reported that melanoma and PD tended to co-occur;our further research however did not support the hypothesis that the link could be potentially explained by genetic risk factors for melanoma (Neurobiol Aging, 2014) In addition, we are also part of a larger consortium to search for genetic causes of PD (e.g. Nat Gene 2014). Another important area of my research is the epidemiology of PD pre-motor symptoms. Clinicians and scientists have known for years that in addition to the characteristic motor signs, PD patients suffer from non-motor symptoms ranging from hyposmia (poor sense of smell) to dementia and psychosis. Although these symptoms can develop both before and after the clinical diagnosis of PD, I am interested in several symptoms that may develop prior to disease diagnosis by years. Examples of these symptoms include hyposmia, constipation, depression and certain sleep disturbances. These pre-motor symptoms may greatly facilitate research to identify populations at higher risk for PD and to understand early PD etiology. In the past, we have examined several individual symptoms in relation to PD risk. I am now conducting epidemiological studies to better characterize pre-motor symptoms in various populations and to understand their relevance to the natural history and etiology of PD. Our specific hypotheses are that 1) the presence of multiple pre-motor symptoms in the same individual predicts higher risk of PD;2) environmental (e.g. smoking, caffeine intake, pesticide exposure, ibuprofen use) and genetic (e.g. SNCA, MAPT) factors affect the presence of these pre-motor symptoms and/or modify their progression to overt PD. We have summarized these ideas in a recent paper on the journal of Environmental Health Perspectives (2014). Further, using national representative data from NHANES, we demonstrated that the joint prevalence of non-motor symptoms is low in the general US population throughout the lifespan (Mov Disord, 2014). I am the principal Investigator on several PD studies that were built on large prospective cohorts. I have focused on prospective cohorts over case-control studies because they are relatively less prone to recall bias and reverse causation. Since PD is a rare outcome, large cohorts and long follow-up times are needed;research built on existing cohorts allows for relatively efficient and cost-effective case-identification. Further, by its nature, pre-motor research requires prospective studies. My ongoing projects include the Parkinson's Genes and Environment Study based on the NIH-AARP Diet and Health cohort, the PD project in the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities study, and the Shanghai Parkinson's Study in the Shanghai Women's Health Study. Further, in collaboration with Branch colleagues, I am developing PD research in the Agricultural Health Study and the Sister Study. Finally, I have been continuing a longstanding collaboration with colleagues from the Harvard School of Public Health, and have developed a new collaboration with investigators at the Karolinska Institute. While these studies have different specific foci, they share a common theme of revealing the causes of PD and characterizing high risk populations for the purpose of disease prevention. In addition to PD research, I am also a member of the Global Burden of Disease group that estimated the public health burdens of a wide range of diseases across countries in the world. Primary findings were published in a series of papers on Lancet and JAMA.
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