Commentary abstract
Nature Cell Biology 2, E115 - E119 (2000)
doi:10.1038/35017124
Is there a cause-and-effect relationship between 
-synuclein
fibrillization and Parkinson's disease?
Matthew S. Goldberg & Peter T. Lansbury Jr
- Matthew S. Goldberg and Peter T. Lansbury Jr are at the Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, The Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
Correspondence to: Peter T. Lansbury Jr e-mail: lansbury@cnd.bwh.harvard.edu
Abstract
The first gene to be linked to Parkinson's disease encodes the neuronal
protein 
-synuclein. Recent mouse and Drosophila models
of Parkinson's disease support a central role for the process of
-synuclein fibrillization in pathogenesis. However, some evidence
indicates that the fibril itself may not be the pathogenic species. Our own
biophysical studies suggest that a structured fibrillization intermediate
or an alternatively assembled oligomer may be responsible for neuronal death.
This speculation can now be experimentally tested in the animal models. Such
experiments will have implications for the development of new therapies for
Parkinson's disease and related neurodegenerative diseases.
