Sandbox Reserved 1109: Difference between revisions

Parkinson's disease is characterized by the accumulation of Lewy bodies in the substantia nigra, a region in the midbrain responsible for motor control, where Lewy bodies contain a build-up of α-synuclein found within the cells that contribute to the disease <ref>PMID: 9546347</ref>. Lewy Bodies are cytoplasmic inclusion made of primarily α-synuclein protein, and may also contain other proteins such as; ubiquitin, Tau proteins. The structure of α-synuclein; N-terminal domain, C-terminal domain, and a hydrophobic core (NAC) suggests an aggregation pathway due to the unfolded nature of the protein. A recent study published by Science Translational Medicine Journal, suggests that a covalent modification such as Serine-129 phosphorylation in α-synuclein, as well as hydrophobic interactions specifically located at the NAC domain of α-synuclein, allows for the polymerization of different α-synuclein protein into an anti-parallel β-sheet conformation permitting the formation of fibrils. Another hypothesis suggests the role of α-synuclein in the loss of dopaminergic neurons functions in PD, which is mediated through the formation of the 54-83 KD complex that contains aggregates of α-synuclein and 14-3-3 protein, which inhibits BCL-BAD protein complex responsible for the inhibition of Apoptosis in dopamine neurons in the midbrain <ref>https://doi.org/10.1038/s41420-018-0125-7</ref> <ref>doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3002566</ref>. All in all, it is important to know that the pathway discussed above is one of many hypotheses for the role of α-synuclein in Parkinson's Disease (PD).