An enzyme that adds a phosphate group to a protein called α-synuclein — the phosphorylated form of which tangles up inside neurons in Parkinson's disease — also targets the protein for destruction.

Hilal Lashuel and his colleagues from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne injected rat brains with the genes for both α-synuclein and the enzyme PLK2.

When they increased amounts of α-synuclein, the rats lost specific neurons and developed Parkinson-like symptoms. But both effects were avoided, and levels of neuronal α-synuclein fell, when they overexpressed the gene for PLK2 at the same time.

They showed that the PLK2 enzyme protects neurons from α-synuclein toxicity by shepherding the protein into autophagy, a cellular process for clearing debris.

Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://doi.org/nmx (2013)