How is Parkinson Disease Inherited?

Certain genes that contain mutations have been identified in Parkinson's patients who have a familial history of the disease, which are believed to make a patient more susceptible to getting Parkinson's. Presence of the genes does not guarantee that a person will get the disease; instead, the genes present a susceptibility to developing Parkinson's. The National Human Genome Research Institute lists seven genes that have been identified to have mutations in hereditary cases of Parkinson's: SNCA (PARK1), UCHL1 (PARK 5), LRRK2 (PARK8), (PARK3), PARK2 (PARK2), PARK7 (PARK7) and PINK1 (PARK6).

Some of the mutated Parkinson's genes are passed down in an autosomal dominant pattern, meaning only one copy of the gene needs to be inherited. Other genes are passed in an autosomal recessive pattern, meaning two copies of the mutated genes must be inherited.