Agonist activation of D3R increases dopamine concentration, decreases α-Syn accumulation, enhances secretion of brain derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF), ameliorates neuroinflammation, alleviates oxidative stress, promotes neurogenesis in the nigrostriatal pathway, interacts with D1R to reduce PD associated motor symptoms and ameliorates side effects of levodopa (L-DOPA) treatment.
Administration of melatonin leads to inhibition of some pathways related to apoptosis, autophagy, oxidative stress, inflammation, α-synuclein aggregation, and dopamine loss in PD.
Parkinson's disease (PD) that afflicts millions of individuals worldwide is associated with deposits of aggregate-prone proteins (e.g., α-synuclein) and with mitochondrial dysfunction in neuronal cells.
Misfolding of the neuronal protein α-synuclein into amyloid fibrils is a pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that has no cure.
The clinical and pathological differences between synucleinopathies such as Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy have been postulated to stem from unique strains of α-synuclein aggregates, akin to what occurs in prion diseases.
Parkinson's disease (PD), a common human neurodegenerative disorder, is characterized by the presence of intraneuronal Lewy bodies composed principally of abnormal aggregated and post-translationally modified α-synuclein.
Much of PD research has focused on the role of α-synuclein aggregates in degeneration of SNpc dopamine neurons because of the impact of loss of striatal dopamine on the classical motor phenotypes.
The application of exogenous alpha-synuclein fibrils via injection to animal models of PD has been shown to be a useful method to study prion-like propagation of pathological alpha-synuclein and of transmission pathways that play a critical role in recapitulating characteristics of synucleinopathies.
A diagnosing system with aggregated α-synuclein encoded by SNCA gene is necessary to make the precautionary treatment against Parkinson's disease (PD).
The misfolding and aggregation of the largely disordered protein, α-synuclein, is a central pathogenic event that occurs in the synucleinopathies; a group of neurodegenerative disorders that includes Parkinson's disease.
In addition, those pathological neurofilament accumulations are known in α-synuclein in Parkinson's disease (PD), Aβ and tau in Alzheimer's disease (AD), polyglutamine in CAG trinucleotide repeat disorders, superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP43), neuronal FUS proteins, optineurin (OPTN), ubiquilin 2 (UBQLN2), and dipeptide repeat protein (DRP) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Screening of the GBA1 gene and analysis of CSF levels of total alpha-synuclein were performed in 80 PD<sub>GBA</sub> , 80 PD<sub>GBA</sub> _<sub>wildtype</sub> and 39 healthy controls cross-sectionally.
Our results establish a master regulatory mechanism of α-synuclein function and aggregation in mammalian cells, extending the functional repertoire of molecular chaperones and highlighting new perspectives for therapeutic interventions for Parkinson's disease.
Given that impaired α-synuclein turnover is a hallmark of PD pathogenesis and cathepsin D is a key enzyme involved in α-synuclein degradation in neuronal cells, we have examined the relationship of glucocerebrosidase (GCase), cathepsin D and monomeric α-synuclein in human neural crest stem cell derived dopaminergic neurons.
Typically, the structural conversion occurs by misfolding of a single disease-associated protein, such as α-synuclein (αS) in Parkinson's disease, amyloid-β in Alzheimer's disease, and prion protein (PrP) in transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs).
Alpha-synuclein (α-syn) is a major component of Lewy bodies, which are the pathological hallmark in Parkinson's disease, and its genetic mutations cause familial forms of Parkinson's disease.
One of the pathological proteins, alpha-synuclein (α-syn), accumulates in the brains of Parkinson disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and multiple system atrophy (MSA), which are designated as synucleinopathies.
Dopaminergic (DAergic) degeneration and abnormal α-synuclein (α-syn) expression, phosphorylation and aggregation are observed in both the nigrostriatal system (NSS) and enteric nervous system (ENS) of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).
Distinct miRNAs have been demonstrated to be involved in the regulation of α-synuclein, a key player in PD pathogenesis; miR-153 and miR-223 are downregulated in the brain and serum of parkinsonian GFAP.HMOX1 transgenic mice where they directly regulate α-synuclein.
Overall, there exists significant associations between SNCArs11931074 polymorphism and the risk of PD under five genetic models (allele contrast model: T vs. G, OR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.12-1.45, P = 0.0001; homozygote model: TG vs. GG, OR = 1.55, 95% CI = 1.17-2.05, P = 0.002; heterozygote model (TT vs. GG, OR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.05-1.42, P = 0.009; dominant model: TG+TT vs. GG: OR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.05-1.50, P = 0.01 and recessive model: TT vs. TG+GG: OR = 1.40, 95% CI = 1.18-1.68, P = 0.0002).
The catecholaldehyde hypothesis posits that diseases featuring catecholaminergic neurodegeneration result from harmful interactions between DOPAL and the protein alpha-synuclein, a major component of Lewy bodies in diseases such as Parkinson disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and pure autonomic failure.
Numerous post-translational modifications (PTMs) of the Parkinson's disease (PD) associated α-synuclein (α-syn) protein have been recognised to play critical roles in disease aetiology.