In this study, fifty-three (11 %) of the PD patients and fifteen (4.5 %) controls carry heterozygous variants in the GBA gene (p = 1.0 × 10−3; OR = 2.17, 95 % CI = 1.36–3.46), which indicate that GBA coding variants increase risk for PD in this cohort. This evidence concerns the gene GBA1 and Parkinson disease.