scholarly journals Alpha-synuclein alters the faecal viromes of rats in a gut-initiated model of Parkinson’s disease

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. R. Stockdale ◽  
L. A. Draper ◽  
S. M. O’Donovan ◽  
W. Barton ◽  
O. O’Sullivan ◽  
...  

AbstractParkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic neurological disorder associated with the misfolding of alpha-synuclein (α-syn) into Lewy body aggregates within nerve cells that contribute to their neurodegeneration. Recent evidence suggests α-syn aggregation may begin in the gut and travel to the brain along the vagus nerve, with microbes a potential trigger initiating the misfolding of α-syn. However, changes in the gut virome in response to α-syn alterations have not been investigated. In this study, we show longitudinal changes in the faecal virome of rats administered either monomeric or preformed fibrils (PFF) of α-syn directly into their enteric nervous system. Differential changes in rat viromes were observed when comparing monomeric and PFF α-syn. The virome β-diversity changes after α-syn treatment were compounded by the addition of LPS as an adjunct. Changes in the diversity of rat faecal viromes were observed after one month and did not resolve within the study’s five month observational period. Overall, these results suggest that microbiome alterations associated with PD may, partially, be reactive to host α-syn associated changes.

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Stockdale ◽  
Lorraine A. Draper ◽  
Sarah M. O’Donovan ◽  
Wiley Barton ◽  
Orla O’Sullivan ◽  
...  

AbstractParkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic neurological disorder associated with the misfolding of alpha-synuclein (α-syn) into aggregates within nerve cells that contribute to their neurodegeneration. Recent evidence suggests α-syn aggregation may begin in the gut and travel to the brain along the vagus nerve, with microbes potentially a trigger initiating α-syn misfolding. However, the effects α-syn alterations on the gut virome have not been investigated. In this study, we show longitudinal faecal virome changes in rats administered either monomeric or preformed fibrils (PFF) of α-syn directly into their enteric nervous system. Differential changes in rat viromes were observed when comparing monomeric and PFF α-syn, with alterations compounded by the addition of LPS. Changes in rat faecal viromes were observed after one month and did not resolve within the study’s five-month observational period. These results suggest that virome alterations may be reactive to host α-syn changes that are associated with PD development.


2022 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Epaminondas Doxakis

AbstractParkinson’s disease (PD) is a complex, age-related, neurodegenerative disease whose etiology, pathology, and clinical manifestations remain incompletely understood. As a result, care focuses primarily on symptoms relief. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a large class of mostly noncoding RNAs that accumulate with aging in the brain and are increasingly shown to regulate all aspects of neuronal and glial development and function. They are generated by the spliceosome through the backsplicing of linear RNA. Although their biological role remains largely unknown, they have been shown to regulate transcription and splicing, act as decoys for microRNAs and RNA binding proteins, used as templates for translation, and serve as scaffolding platforms for signaling components. Considering that they are stable, diverse, and detectable in easily accessible biofluids, they are deemed promising biomarkers for diagnosing diseases. CircRNAs are differentially expressed in the brain of patients with PD, and growing evidence suggests that they regulate PD pathogenetic processes. Here, the biogenesis, expression, degradation, and detection of circRNAs, as well as their proposed functions, are reviewed. Thereafter, research linking circRNAs to PD-related processes, including aging, alpha-synuclein dysregulation, neuroinflammation, and oxidative stress is highlighted, followed by recent evidence for their use as prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers for PD.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 3573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Kujawska ◽  
Jadwiga Jodynis-Liebert

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder resulting from degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc). PD is characterized by motor dysfunctions as well as gastrointestinal symptoms and mental impairment. The pathological hallmark of PD is an accumulation of misfolded α-synuclein aggregates within the brain. The etiology of PD and related synucleinopathy is poorly understood, but recently, the hypothesis that α-synuclein pathology spreads in a prion-like fashion originating in the gut has gained much scientific attention. A crucial clue was the appearance of constipation before the onset of motor symptoms, gut dysbiosis and synucleinopathy in PD patients. Another line of evidence, demonstrating accumulation of α-synuclein within the peripheral autonomic nervous system (PANS), including the enteric nervous system (ENS), and the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (DMV) support the concept that α-synuclein can spread from the ENS to the brain by the vagus nerve. The decreased risk of PD following truncal vagotomy supports this. The convincing evidence of the prion-like behavior of α-synuclein came from postmortem observations that pathological α-synuclein inclusions appeared in healthy grafted neurons. In this review, we summarize the available data from human subjects’ research and animal experiments, which seem to be the most suggestive for explaining the hypotheses.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Wang ◽  
Xin Li ◽  
Xuran Li ◽  
Weiwei Yang ◽  
Shun Yu

A pathological hallmark of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is formation of Lewy bodies in neurons of the brain. This has been attributed to the spread of α-synuclein (α-syn) aggregates, which involves release of α-syn from a neuron and its reuptake by a neighboring neuron. We found that treatment with plasma from PD patients induced more α-syn phosphorylation and oligomerization than plasma from normal subjects (NS). Compared with NS plasma, PD plasma added to primary neuron cultures caused more cell death in the presence of extracellular α-syn. This was supported by the observations that phosphorylated α-syn oligomers entered neurons, rapidly increased accumulated thioflavin S-positive inclusions, and induced a series of metabolic changes that included activation of polo-like kinase 2, inhibition of glucocerebrosidase and protein phosphatase 2A, and reduction of ceramide levels, all of which have been shown to promote α-syn phosphorylation and aggregation. We also analyzed neurotoxicity of α-syn oligomers relative to plasma from different patients. Neurotoxicity was not related to age or gender of the patients. However, neurotoxicity was positively correlated with H&Y staging score. The modification in the plasma may promote spreading of α-syn aggregates via an alternative pathway and accelerate progression of PD.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noritaka Wakasugi ◽  
Takashi Hanakawa

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia due to neurodegeneration and is characterized by extracellular senile plaques composed of amyloid β1–42 (Aβ) as well as intracellular neurofibrillary tangles consisting of phosphorylated tau (p-tau). Dementia with Lewy bodies constitutes a continuous spectrum with Parkinson’s disease, collectively termed Lewy body disease (LBD). LBD is characterized by intracellular Lewy bodies containing α-synuclein (α-syn). The core clinical features of AD and LBD spectra are distinct, but the two spectra share common cognitive and behavioral symptoms. The accumulation of pathological proteins, which acquire pathogenicity through conformational changes, has long been investigated on a protein-by-protein basis. However, recent evidence suggests that interactions among these molecules may be critical to pathogenesis. For example, Aβ/tau promotes α-syn pathology, and α-syn modulates p-tau pathology. Furthermore, clinical evidence suggests that these interactions may explain the overlapping pathology between AD and LBD in molecular imaging and post-mortem studies. Additionally, a recent hypothesis points to a common mechanism of prion-like progression of these pathological proteins, via neural circuits, in both AD and LBD. This suggests a need for understanding connectomics and their alterations in AD and LBD from both pathological and functional perspectives. In AD, reduced connectivity in the default mode network is considered a hallmark of the disease. In LBD, previous studies have emphasized abnormalities in the basal ganglia and sensorimotor networks; however, these account for movement disorders only. Knowledge about network abnormalities common to AD and LBD is scarce because few previous neuroimaging studies investigated AD and LBD as a comprehensive cohort. In this paper, we review research on the distribution and interactions of pathological proteins in the brain in AD and LBD, after briefly summarizing their clinical and neuropsychological manifestations. We also describe the brain functional and connectivity changes following abnormal protein accumulation in AD and LBD. Finally, we argue for the necessity of neuroimaging studies that examine AD and LBD cases as a continuous spectrum especially from the proteinopathy and neurocircuitopathy viewpoints. The findings from such a unified AD and Parkinson’s disease (PD) cohort study should provide a new comprehensive perspective and key data for guiding disease modification therapies targeting the pathological proteins in AD and LBD.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Konstantin Nissen ◽  
Kristine Farmen ◽  
Mikkel Carstensen ◽  
Claudia Schulte ◽  
David Goldeck ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundAlpha-synuclein aggregates and accumulation are associated with immune activation and neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease. The immune activation is not only dependent on the brain-resident microglial cells but also involves peripheral immune cells, such as mononuclear phagocytes including monocytes and dendritic cells, found in the blood as well as infiltrated into the brain. Understanding the involvement of the peripheral immune component in Parkinson’s disease is essential for the development of immunomodulatory treatment, which might modify disease progression. We aimed to study the profile of circulating mononuclear phagocytes in early- and late-stage Parkinson’s disease by analyzing surface-expressed molecules related to phagocytosis, alpha-synuclein sensing, and tissue-migration.MethodsMulti-color flow cytometry on peripheral mononuclear cells from cross-sectional samples of 80 gender-balance individuals with early- and late-stage sporadic Parkinson’s disease, and 29 controls, as well as longitudinal samples from seven patients and one control. Cells were delineated into natural killer cells, monocyte subtypes, and dendritic cells with cell frequencies and surface marker expressions compared between patients and controls, and correlated with standardized clinical motor and non-motor scores.ResultsOverall, we found elevated frequencies and surface levels of markers related to migration (CCR2, CD11b) and phagocytosis (CD163) particularly on the elevated classical and intermediate monocytes in patients with Parkinson’s disease for less than five years. This corresponded to a decrease of non-classical monocytes and dendritic cells. We observed an increased HLA-DR expression late in disease and sexual-dimorphism with TLR-4 expression decreased in women with PD but not in males. The disease-associated immune changes on TLR4, CCR2, and CD11b were correlated with non-motor symptoms such as olfaction or cognition. While many alterations were normalized at late disease stage, other changes remained, such as the increased HLA-DR and CD163 expressions.ConclusionsOur data highlight a role for peripheral CD163+ and migration-competent classical monocytes in Parkinson’s disease. The study further suggests that the peripheral immune system is dynamically altered in Parkinson’s disease stages and directly related to both non-motor symptoms and the sex-bias of the disease.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Hyung Seo ◽  
Sujung Yeo

Abstract Parkinson’s disease (PD) is known as the second most common neurodegenerative disease, which is caused by destruction of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) of the brain; however, the reason for the death of dopaminergic neurons remains unclear. An increase in α-synuclein (α-syn) is considered an important factor in the pathogenesis of PD. In the current study, we investigated the association between PD and serine/arginine-rich protein specific kinase 3 (Srpk3) in MPTP-induced parkinsonism mice model and in SH-SY5Y cells treated with MPP+. Srpk3 expression was significantly downregulated, while tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) decreased and α-synuclein (α-syn) increased after 4 weeks of MPTP intoxication treatment. Dopaminergic cell reduction and α-syn increase were demonstrated by inhibiting Srpk3 expression by siRNA in SH-SY5Y cells. Moreover, a decrease in Srpk3 expression upon siRNA treatment promoted dopaminergic cell reduction and α-syn increase in SH-SY5Y cells treated with MPP+. These results suggest that the decrease in Srpk3 expression due to Srpk3 siRNA caused both a decrease in TH and an increase in α-syn. This raises new possibilities for studying how Srpk3 controls dopaminergic cells and α-syn expression, which may be related to the pathogenesis of PD. Our results provide an avenue for understanding the role of Srpk3 during dopaminergic cell loss and α-syn increase in the SN. Furthermore, this study could support a therapeutic possibility for PD in that the maintenance of Srpk3 expression inhibited dopaminergic cell reduction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goichi Beck ◽  
Yumiko Hori ◽  
Yoshito Hayashi ◽  
Eiichi Morii ◽  
Tetsuo Takehara ◽  
...  

Background. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor and nonmotor impairments, including constipation. Lewy bodies and neurites, the pathological hallmarks of PD, are found in the enteric nervous system (ENS) as well as the central nervous system. Constipation is a well-documented premotor symptom in PD, and recent reports have demonstrated Lewy pathology in gastrointestinal (GI) tissues of PD patients prior to the onset of motor symptoms. Objective. In the present study, we assessed Lewy pathology in the GI tracts of seven PD patients who had undergone a gastrectomy, gastric polypectomy, or colonic polypectomy prior to the onset of motor symptoms in order to assess whether the presence of pathological αSyn in the ENS could be a predictor for PD. Methods. GI tissue samples were collected from control patients and patients with premotor PD. Immunohistochemistry was performed using primary antibodies against α-synuclein (αSyn) and phosphorylated αSyn (pαSyn), after which Lewy pathology in each sample was assessed. Results. In all control and premotor PD patients, accumulation of αSyn was observed in the myenteric plexus in both the stomach and colon. In 82% (18/22) of control patients, mild-to-moderate accumulation of αSyn was observed in the submucosal plexus. However, there was no deposition of pαSyn in the ENS of control patients. In patients with premotor PD, abundant accumulation of αSyn was observed in the myenteric plexus, similar to control patients. On the other hand, pαSyn-positive aggregates were also observed in the nerve fibers in the muscularis propria in all examined patients with premotor PD (100%, 3/3), while the deposition of pαSyn in the submucosal plexus was only observed in one patient (14%, 1/7). Conclusion. Our results suggest that the detection of pαSyn, but not αSyn, especially in the muscularis propria of GI tracts, could be a sensitive prodromal biomarker for PD.


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