1. Calcium influx: An essential process by which α-Synuclein regulates morphology of erythrocytes.
- Author
-
Yang, Ying, Shi, Min, Liu, Xiaodan, Zhu, Qiaoyun, Xu, Zhi, Liu, Genliang, Feng, Tao, Stewart, Tessandra, and Zhang, Jing
- Subjects
- *
CALCIUM channels , *ERYTHROCYTES , *ALPHA-synuclein , *CALCIUM-binding proteins , *CALCIUM , *PARKINSON'S disease , *KNOCKOUT mice - Abstract
[Display omitted] • Morphological abnormalities of RBCs were observed in PD patients. • Increased aggregated α-syn in RBC membrane were observed in PD patients. • A decreased proportion of normal RBCs and increased aggregated α-syn in RBC membrane were also observed in PD model mice. • Treating RBCs derived from SNCA knockout mice with aggregated α-syn resulted in a higher percentage of acanthocytes. • Applying aggregated α-syn to RBC membrane directly induced extracellular calcium influx along with morphological changes. Morphological abnormalities of erythrocytes/red blood cells (RBCs), e.g., increased acanthocytes, in Parkinson's disease (PD) have been reported previously, although the underlying mechanisms remain to be characterized. In this study, the potential roles of α-synuclein (α-syn), a protein critically involved in PD and highly abundant in RBCs, were studied in PD patients as well as in a PD mouse model. Transgenic [PAC-Tg (SNCAA53T), A53T] mice overexpressing A53T mutant α-syn and SNCA knockout mice were employed to characterize the effect of α-syn on RBC morphology. In addition to A53T and SNCA knockout mice, the morphology of RBCs of PD patients was also examined using scanning electron microscopy. The potential roles of α-syn were further investigated in cultured RBCs and mice. Morphological abnormalities of RBCs and increased accumulation of aggregated α-syn on the RBC membrane were observed in PD patients. A similar phenomenon was also observed in A53T mice. Furthermore, while mice lacking α-syn expression showed a lower proportion of acanthocytes, treating RBCs derived from SNCA knockout mice with aggregated α-syn resulted in a higher percentage of acanthocytes. In a follow-up proteomic investigation, several major classes of proteins were identified as α-syn-associated proteins on the RBC membrane, seven of which were calcium-binding proteins. Applying aggregated α-syn to the RBC membrane directly induced extracellular calcium influx along with morphological changes; both observations were adequately reversed by blocking calcium influx. This study demonstrated that α-syn plays a critical role in PD-associated morphological abnormalities of RBCs, at least partially via a process mediated by extracellular calcium influx. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF