Alpha-synuclein research: defining strategic moves in the battle against Parkinson’s disease

Luis M A Oliveira (1) , Thomas Gasser (2, 3) , Robert Edwards , Markus Zweckstetter (3) , Ronald Melki (4) , Leonidas Stefanis , Hilal A Lashuel , David Sulzer , Kostas Vekrellis , Glenda M Halliday , Julianna J Tomlinson , Michael Schlossmacher , Poul Henning Jensen , Julia Schulze-Hentrich , Olaf Riess , Warren D Hirst , Omar El-Agnaf , Brit Mollenhauer , Peter Lansbury , Tiago F Outeiro (3)

1 The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research
2 University of Tübingen
3 DZNE - German Research Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases - Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen
4 LMN - Laboratoire des Maladies Neurodégénératives - UMR 9199

With the advent of the genetic era in Parkinson’s disease (PD) research in 1997, α-synuclein was identified as an important player in a complex neurodegenerative disease that affects >10 million people worldwide. PD has been estimated to have an economic impact of $51.9 billion in the US alone. Since the initial association with PD, hundreds of researchers have contributed to elucidating the functions of α-synuclein in normal and pathological states, and these remain critical areas for continued research. With this position paper the authors strive to achieve two goals: first, to succinctly summarize the critical features that define α-synuclein’s varied roles, as they are known today; and second, to identify the most pressing knowledge gaps and delineate a multipronged strategy for future research with the goal of enabling therapies to stop or slow disease progression in PD.

Domains: Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]

Luis M A Oliveira, Thomas Gasser, Robert Edwards, Markus Zweckstetter, Ronald Melki, et al.. Alpha-synuclein research: defining strategic moves in the battle against Parkinson’s disease. npj Parkinson's Disease, 2021, 7, ⟨10.1038/s41531-021-00203-9⟩. ⟨cea-03308380⟩