%0 Journal Article
%T Telomere Length and Parkinson’s Disease Traits: A Mendelian Randomization Study
%A Elina Misicka
%A Anushree Iyengar
%A Farren Briggs
%J Advances in Parkinson's Disease
%P 13-37
%@ 2169-9720
%D 2025
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/apd.2025.142002
%X Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition influenced by aging, but the biological pathways linking age to PD remain unclear. Telomere length (TL), a marker of cellular aging, has been inconsistently linked to PD in observational studies. To assess potential causal relationships, we conducted two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR), a genetic approach that uses naturally occurring genetic variation to study causality. We used genetic instruments from a large genome-wide association study of TL (472,147 participants) and tested their associations with PD-related traits: disease risk, age at onset, binary motor subtype (tremor-dominant vs. postural instability/gait difficulty), and a continuous motor subtype score. We also assessed reverse causality to test whether PD traits may causally influence TL, using instruments derived from genome-wide association studies for each outcome. No causal relationships were detected in either direction (all p > 0.05). These findings suggest that leukocyte TL is not a causal factor for PD risk or related clinical traits. Future research should investigate TL in brain-specific tissues and explore other aging biomarkers in relation to PD.
%K Parkinson&#8217
%K s Disease
%K Telomere Length
%K Aging
%K Mendelian Randomization
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=142463