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  4. Prominent astrocytic alpha-synuclein pathology with unique post-translational modification signatures unveiled across Lewy body disorders
 
research article

Prominent astrocytic alpha-synuclein pathology with unique post-translational modification signatures unveiled across Lewy body disorders

Altay, Melek Firat  
•
Liu, Alan King Lun
•
Holton, Janice L.
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November 12, 2022
Acta Neuropathologica Communications

Alpha-synuclein (aSyn) is a pre-synaptic monomeric protein that can form aggregates in neurons in Parkinson's disease (PD), Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and in oligodendrocytes in multiple system atrophy (MSA). Although aSyn in astrocytes has previously been described in PD, PDD and DLB, the biochemical properties and topographical distribution of astrocytic aSyn have not been studied in detail. Here, we present a systematic investigation of aSyn astrocytic pathology using an expanded antibody toolset covering the entire sequence and key post-translational modifications (PTMs) of aSyn in Lewy body disorders (LBDs) and in MSA. Astrocytic aSyn was detected in the limbic cortical regions of LBDs but were absent in main pathological regions of MSA. The astrocytic aSyn was revealed only with antibodies against the mid N-terminal and non-amyloid component (NAC) regions covering aSyn residues 34-99. The astroglial accumulations were negative to canonical aSyn aggregation markers, including p62, ubiquitin and aSyn pS129, but positive for phosphorylated and nitrated forms of aSyn at Tyrosine 39 (Y39), and not resistant to proteinase K. Our findings suggest that astrocytic aSyn accumulations represent a major part of aSyn pathology in LBDs and possess a distinct sequence and PTM signature that is characterized by both N- and C-terminal truncations and modifications at Y39. This is the first description that aSyn accumulations are made solely from N- and C-terminally cleaved aSyn species and the first report demonstrating that astrocytic aSyn is a mixture of Y39 phosphorylated and nitrated species. These observations underscore the importance of systematic characterization of aSyn accumulations in different cell types to capture the aSyn pathological diversity in the brain. Our findings combined with further studies on the role of astrocytic pathology in the progression of LBDs can pave the way towards identifying novel disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1186/s40478-022-01468-8
Web of Science ID

WOS:000882387000001

Author(s)
Altay, Melek Firat  
Liu, Alan King Lun
Holton, Janice L.
Parkkinen, Laura
Lashuel, Hilal A.  
Date Issued

2022-11-12

Publisher

BMC

Published in
Acta Neuropathologica Communications
Volume

10

Issue

1

Start page

163

Subjects

Neurosciences

•

Neurosciences & Neurology

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alpha-synuclein

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parkinson's disease

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lewy body disorder

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aggregation

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post-translational modification

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astrocytes

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multiple system atrophy

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parkinsons-disease

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filamentous inclusions

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nacp/alpha-synuclein

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activates microglia

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dementia

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bodies

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phosphorylation

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accumulation

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pathogenesis

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LMNN  
Available on Infoscience
December 5, 2022
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/192999
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