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α-synuclein and cytosolic dopamine: Stabilizing a bad situation

The intriguing finding that α-synuclein—a protein recently found to be mutated in some familial cases of Parkinson disease—and cytosolic dopamine interact to form adducts that stabilize a presumably toxic intermediate of fibril formation provides clues into the mechanism of neurodegeneration.

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Figure 1: Model for pathogenic interactions between dopamine and α-SYN in neuronal cytosol.

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Sulzer, D. α-synuclein and cytosolic dopamine: Stabilizing a bad situation. Nat Med 7, 1280–1282 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1201-1280

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