α-Synuclein in Lewy bodies

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 388; no. 6645; pp. 839 - 840
• Main Authors: Spillantini, Maria Grazia, Schmidt, Marie Luise, Lee, Virginia M.-Y, Trojanowski, John Q, Jakes, Ross, Goedert, Michel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 28-08-1997
• Subjects: alpha-Synuclein; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Lewy Bodies - metabolism; Nerve Tissue Proteins - analysis; Parkinson Disease - metabolism; Synucleins
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/42166

Lewy bodies, a defining pathological characteristic of Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), constitute the second most common nerve cell pathology, after the neurofibrillary lesions of Alzheimer's disease. Their formation may cause neurodegeneration, but their biochemical composition is unknown. Neurofilaments and ubiquitin are present, but it is unclear whether they are major components of the filamentous material of the Lewy body,. Here we describe strong staining of Lewy bodies from idiopathic Parkinson's disease with antibodies for α-synuclein, a presynaptic protein of unknown function which is mutated in some familial cases of the disease. α-Synuclein may be the main component of the Lewy body in Parkinson's disease. We also show staining for α-synuclein of Lewy bodies from DLB, indicating that the Lewy bodies from these two diseases may have identical compositions.