Interestingly, both PD and incidental Lewy body disease tissues showed 100% concordance for elevated levels of pathological α-synuclein seeding activity compared to control tissues.
This study highlights the therapeutic potential of α-synuclein immunotherapy for the treatment of PD and DLB, and provides a framework for screening of α-synuclein antibodies to identify those with preferred properties.
They expressed truncated, oligomeric and proteinase K-resistant phosphorylated forms of α-synuclein in the regions that are specifically affected in Parkinson's disease and/or dementia with Lewy bodies, including the olfactory bulb, cerebral cortex, striatum and substantia nigra.
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.
PD, PD with dementia, and dementia with Lewy bodies are clinical syndromes characterized by the neuropathological accumulation of alpha-synuclein in the CNS that represent a clinicopathological spectrum known as Lewy body disorders.
Our study suggests that catD upregulation may be an adaptive response to AD-related processes leading to neurofibrillary degeneration, but may not be directly associated with formation of α-synuclein inclusions in Lewy body dementia.
The patients with Parkinson's disease, Parkinson's disease with dementia, and dementia with Lewy bodies whose brain pathology indicated deposit of alpha-synuclein along with the co-occurrence of tau pathology and amyloid-beta plaques presented LRP10 mutations.
Although the mechanisms through which glucocerebrosidase regulates the homeostasis of α-synuclein remains poorly understood, the identification of reduced glucocerebrosidase activity in the brains of patients with PD and dementia with Lewy bodies has paved the way for the development of novel therapeutic strategies directed at enhancing glucocerebrosidase activity and reducing α-synuclein burden, thereby slowing down or even preventing neuronal death.
α-Synuclein is the most thoroughly investigated because of its close association with Parkinson's disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies and multiple system atrophy.
Alpha-synuclein (αS) is the major constituent of Lewy bodies and a pathogenic hallmark of all synucleinopathathies, including Parkinson's disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and multiple system atrophy (MSA).
Adult-onset neurodegenerative disorders, like Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), that share the accumulation of aggregated α-synuclein (αSyn<sub>agg</sub>) as their hallmark molecular pathology are collectively known as α-synucleinopathies.
Interestingly, there was a high concentration of αSyn aggregates in the stratum lacunosum moleculare of hippocampal CA2 region, which has been associated in humans with accumulation of αSyn pathology and neural atrophy in dementia with Lewy bodies.
Moreover, tau and α-synuclein concentrations showed opposite trends in AD and DLB patients, suggesting the benefit of combining the two biomarkers for differentiation of DLB from AD and controls.
Two agents targeting alpha-synuclein (NPT200-11 and ambroxol) currently hold promise as disease-modifying therapies for DLB, but they are yet to be tested in clinical trials.
The group of neurodegenerative diseases, Parkinson's disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and multiple system atrophy (MSA) all exhibit inclusions containing amyloid-type α-synuclein (α-syn) aggregates within degenerating brain cells.
Cortical overexpression of human α-synuclein is not sufficient to produce cognitive dysfunction, whereas combining this overexpression with fibril seeds yields both cognitive and histopathological phenotypes that are relevant to human Lewy body disease.
α-Synuclein is the major component of Lewy bodies and a candidate biomarker for neurodegenerative diseases in which Lewy bodies are common, including Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.
A number of studies using postmortem brain samples showed that the deposition of protein aggregates of α-synuclein, termed Lewy bodies, is evident in multiple brain regions of patients from PD and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB).
Multiple system atrophy and dementia with Lewy bodies are other neurodegenerative diseases in which α-synuclein aggregates are the main pathological characteristic.