If you're at risk of Parkinson's, traffic pollution may make your risk worse

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-03-18 02:00

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If you're already at a higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease because of your genes, being exposed to traffic-related air pollution may further increase your risk, according to international researchers. The team looked at traffic pollution exposure in 1,600 people with Parkinson's and compared them with around 1,800 people without the condition. They found people with higher genetic risk scores for Parkinson's who were exposed to higher traffic pollution levels had a higher risk of developing the condition than people with a high genetic risk who were not exposed, and this risk increased with higher genetic risk scores and higher exposure.

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Research JAMA, Web page

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conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Funder: This study was supported by grants R01-ES031106, R01-ES010544, R01ES013717, R21ES022391, U54-ES012078, P01-ES016732, and P50-NS038367 from the NIH; grant X81XWH-07-1-0005 from the Department of Defense; grant 20161386 from the American Parkinson’s Disease Association (Dr Ritz); grants LI 2654/2-1, BE 2287/5-1, and LI 2654/4-1 from the German Research Foundation (Dr Lill); and funds from the Parkinson Alliance (Dr Ritz), Levine Foundation, AbbVie Inc, and Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc (Dr Bronstein).

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