25 Years Ago, the First Report of a Mutation Associated With Parkinson’s Disease

• A quarter century has passed since the first report of a genetic mutation associated with Parkinson’s disease, in a gene responsible for making the alpha-synuclein protein.
• There are no blood tests or imaging options to diagnose Parkinson’s disease, and because of the large variability of symptoms, it is often called a “snowflake disease”.
• Once it is diagnosed, simple changes in one’s routines can make big differences — as we saw recently in the instance of Father Stan Swamy.

On July 5, 2021, Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest, died at the Holy Family Hospital, Mumbai. Per the Bombay high court’s directions, Stan Swamy had been moved from prison — he had been arrested in October 2020 — to the hospital on May 28, 2021. The court later extended his hospital stay due to his deteriorating health. The fact that Swamy was suffering from Parkinson’s disease has since been public knowledge, if it wasn’t already before.

Neurological disorders like Parkinson’s have become a leading cause of disability around the world. Exactly a quarter century has passed since the first report of a genetic mutation associated with Parkinson’s disease: in the gene SNCA, responsible for making the protein alpha-synuclein. Over the years…