Challis, C. et al. Nat. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-020-0589-7 (2020)

Synucleinopathies are neurodegenerative diseases characterized by the abnormal accumulation of alpha-synuclein (α-Syn) protein aggregates in neurons, nerve fibres or glial cells. In Parkinson’s disease, motor symptom manifestations coincide with the appearance of α-Syn pathology in midbrain dopaminergic neurons, but increasing evidence suggests that the pathology might originate earlier in the gastrointestinal tract before progressing to the brain.

By showing that the inoculation of α-Syn fibrils in the duodenum wall of aged mice, but not younger mice, resulted in progression of α-Syn histopathology to the midbrain and subsequent motor defects, a new study provides further evidence of peripheral synucleinopathy in early Parkinson’s disease.