The LRRK2 p.A419V variant associates with risk of Parkinson’s disease in the East Asian population and an evaluation on age of onset

Common and rare variants in LRRK2 influence Parkinson’s disease (PD) risk across diverse populations. We investigated the p.A419V variant across multiple ancestry cohorts comprising over 200,000 individuals. In cases of East Asian ancestry, the variant was significantly associated with increased risk (OR = 2.9; 95% CI: 1.66–5.10; p = 0.0002), It lies on rare EAS haplotypes, and was not in linkage disequilibrium with other LRRK2 coding variants. Although not significant, meta-analysis of age of onset in EAS cases show a suggestive trend (β = –0.89 years; SE = 1.01; p = 0.380). LRRK2 protein modelling prediction indicated that binding sites for RAB8A, RAB10, RAB29 were in close proximity to the p.A419V variant within the ARM domain. Together, these findings confirm the p.A419V as a significant PD risk factor in EAS populations, as well as highlight disease-relevant variants in the ARM domain and the link with LRRK2-RAB signaling pathway.