Yeast models of PD enable disentangling of α-synuclein pathology and screening for therapeutic compounds

Molecules that alleviate α-synuclein toxicity in vitro have been identified in two recent studies. The research teams created yeast models of Parkinson (PD) disease to assess the molecular pathways involved in α-synuclein pathology—a hallmark of PD—and identified the ubiquitin ligase Nedd4 as a target for compounds that conteract α-synuclein toxicity. Cell-based high-throughput screening technology may provide an efficient way to identify novel targets and therapeutic compounds in PD and other neurodegenerative diseases.