channelopathy ͉ FEB3 locus ͉ convulsions ͉ epilepsy ͉ neuronal excitability I t has long been known that there is a major genetic component in the etiology of febrile seizures (FS), and an autosomaldominant (AD) inheritance with incomplete penetrance has been proposed in large pedigrees or groups of families with FS (1). Six loci for familial FS have been reported, but no genes were identified; they have been mapped at chromosomes 8q13-21

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Recent studies have reported an association between the glucocerebrosidase (GBA) gene and Parkinson's disease (PD). To elucidate the role of this gene in our population, we screened 395 PD patients and 483 controls from southern Italy for the N370S and the L444P mutations. We found 11 patients (2.8%) carrying a heterozygous mutant GBA allele, whereas only one control subject (0.2%) had a heterozygous substitution (P = 0.0018). These results strongly suggest that Italian carriers of a GBA mutation have an increased risk of developing PD.