Analysis of Expression of the GRIPAP1, DLG4, KIF1B, NGFRAP1, and NRF1 Genes in Peripheral Blood of the Patients with Parkinson’s Disease in the Early Clinical Stages

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most common progressive neurodegenerative diseases. An important feature of the disease is its long latent period, which necessitates search for prognostic biomarkers. One method of identifying biomarkers of PD is to study changes in gene expression in peripheral blood of the patients in early stages of the disease and have not been treated. In this study, we analyzed relative mRNA levels of the genes <i>GRIPAP1</i>, <i>DLG4</i>, <i>KIF1B</i>, <i>NGFRAP1</i>, and <i>NRF1</i>, which are associated with neurotransmitter transport, apoptosis, and mitochondrial dysfunction, in the peripheral blood of PD patients using reverse transcription and real-time PCR with TaqMan probes. The results of this study suggest that the <i>GRIPAP1</i> and <i>DLG4</i> genes could be considered as potential biomarkers for the early clinical stages of Parkinson's disease. The data obtained may indicate that <i>NGFRAP1</i> is involved in pathogenesis of both PD and other neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore, in the early clinical stages of the disease we studied, the <i>KIF1B</i> and <i>NRF1</i> genes were found not to be involved in PD pathogenesis at the expression level.