at present, when a clinical diagnosis of parkinson’s disease (pd) is made, serious damage has already been done to nerve cells of the substantia nigra pars compacta. the diagnosis of pd in its earlier stages, before this irreversible damage, would be of enormous benefit for future treatment strategies designed to slow or halt the progression of this disease that possibly prevents accumulation o...

Genetic and biochemical abnormalities of α-synuclein are associated with the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. In the present study we investigated the in vivo interaction of mouse and human α-synuclein with the potent parkinsonian neurotoxin, MPTP. We find that while lack of mouse α-synuclein in mice is associated with reduced vulnerability to MPTP, increased levels of human α-synuclein exp...

OBJECTIVE Whereas the contribution of α-synuclein to neurodegeneration in Parkinson disease is well accepted, the putative impact of its close homologue, β-synuclein, is enigmatic. β-Synuclein is widely expressed throughout the central nervous system, as is α-synuclein, but the physiological functions of both proteins remain unknown. Recent findings have supported the view that β-synuclein can ...

The progression of many human neurodegenerative disorders is associated with an accumulation of alpha-synuclein. Alpha-synuclein belongs to the homologous synuclein family, which includes beta-synuclein. It has been proposed that beta-synuclein may be a natural regulator of alpha-synuclein. Therefore controlling beta-synuclein expression may control the accumulation of alpha-synuclein and ultim...

INTRODUCTION Several neurodegenerative diseases are classified as proteopathies as they are associated with the aggregation of misfolded proteins. Synucleinopathies are a group of neurodegenerative disorders associated with abnormal deposition of synucleins. α-Synucleinopathies include Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and multiple system atrophy. Recently accumulation of another ...

INTRODUCTION Parkinson's disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA) are neurodegenerative diseases that are characterized by the intracellular accumulation of alpha-synuclein containing aggregates. Recent increasing evidence suggests that Parkinson's disease and MSA pathology spread throughout the nervous system in a spatiotemporal fashion, possibly by prion-like propagation of alpha-synucl...

within the ␣-synuclein molecule, which self-aggregates to 2 Department of Pathology form amyloid and is an efficient seed for formation of A␤ subsequently found to belong to a larger family of molecules , including ␤-synuclein (or phosphoneuroprotein 14) (Jakes et al. We characterized ␤-synuclein, the non-amyloidogenic molecule is a natively unfolded protein (Weinreb et al., homolog of ␣-synucl...

The role of alpha-synuclein in pathogenesis of familial and idiopathic forms of Parkinson's disease, and other human disorders known as alpha-synucleinopathies, is well established. In contrast, the involvement of two other members of the synuclein family, beta-synuclein and gamma-synuclein, in the development and progression of neurodegeneration is poorly studied. However, there is a growing b...

alpha-Synuclein has been implicated in the pathophysiology of many neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease. Mutations in alpha-synuclein cause some cases of familial PD (Polymeropoulos et al., 1997; Kruger et al., 1998). In addition, many neurodegenerative diseases show accumulation of alpha-synuclein in dystrophic neurites and in Lewy bodies (Spil...

γ-Synuclein is a member of the synucleins family of small proteins, which consists of three members:α, β- and γ-synuclein. γ-Synuclein is abnormally expressed in a high percentage of advanced and metastatic tumors, but not in normal or benign tissues. Furthermore, γ-synuclein expression is strongly correlated with disease progression, and can stimulate proliferation, induce invasion and metasta...