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Motivation Bioinformatic tools capable of annotating, rapidly and reproducibly, large, targeted lipidomic datasets are limited. Specifically, few programs enable high-throughput peak assessment of liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry data acquired in either selected or multiple reaction monitoring modes. Results We present here Bayesian Annotations for Targeted Lipidomics, a Gaussian naïve Bayes classifier for targeted lipidomics that annotates peak identities according to eight features related to retention time, intensity, and peak shape. Lipid identification is achieved by modeling distributions of these eight input features across biological conditions and maximizing the joint posterior probabilities of all peak identities at a given transition. When applied to sphingolipid and glycerophosphocholine selected reaction monitoring datasets, we demonstrate over 95% of all peaks are rapidly and correctly identified. Availability and implementation BATL software is freely accessible online at https://complimet.ca/batl/ and is compatible with Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Edge. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

The mechanisms by which parkin protects the adult human brain from Parkinson disease remain incompletely understood. We hypothesized that parkin cysteines participate in redox reactions and that these are reflected in its posttranslational modifications. We found that in post mortem human brain, including in the Substantia nigra, parkin is largely insoluble after age 40 years; this transition is linked to its oxidation, such as at residues Cys95 and Cys253. In mice, oxidative stress induces posttranslational modifications of parkin cysteines that lower its solubility in vivo. Similarly, oxidation of recombinant parkin by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) promotes its insolubility and aggregate formation, and in exchange leads to the reduction of H2O2. This thiol-based redox activity is diminished by parkin point mutants, e.g., p.C431F and p.G328E. In prkn-null mice, H2O2 levels are increased under oxidative stress conditions, such as acutely by 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine toxin exposure or chronically due to a second, genetic hit; H2O2 levels are also significantly increased in parkin-deficient human brain. In dopamine toxicity studies, wild-type parkin, but not disease-linked mutants, protects human dopaminergic cells, in part through lowering H2O2. Parkin also neutralizes reactive, electrophilic dopamine metabolites via adduct formation, which occurs foremost at the primate-specific residue Cys95. Further, wild-type but not p.C95A-mutant parkin augments melanin formation in vitro. By probing sections of adult, human midbrain from control individuals with epitope-mapped, monoclonal antibodies, we found specific and robust parkin reactivity that co-localizes with neuromelanin pigment, frequently within LAMP-3/CD63+ lysosomes. We conclude that oxidative modifications of parkin cysteines are associated with protective outcomes, which include the reduction of H2O2, conjugation of reactive dopamine metabolites, sequestration of radicals within insoluble aggregates, and increased melanin formation. The loss of these complementary redox effects may augment oxidative stress during ageing in dopamine-producing cells of mutant PRKN allele carriers, thereby enhancing the risk of Parkinson’s-linked neurodegeneration.

BackgroundWe previously created the PREDIGT Score as an algorithm to predict the incidence of Parkinson disease. The model rests on a hypothesis-driven formula, [PR=(E+D+I)xGxT], that uses numerical values for five categories known to modulate Parkinson’s risk (PR): environmental exposure (E); DNA variants (D); evidence of gene-environment interactions (I); gender (G); and time (T). Notably, the formula does not rely on motor examination results.MethodsTo evaluate the PREDIGT Score, we tested it in two established case-control cohorts: ‘De Novo Parkinson Study’ (DeNoPa) and ‘Parkinson’s Progression Marker Initiative’ (PPMI). Using baseline data from 589 patients and 309 controls enrolled in the DeNoPa and PPMI cohorts, we evaluated the PREDIGT Score’s discriminative performance in distinguishing Parkinson’s patients from healthy controls by area-under-the-curve (AUC) analyses.FindingsWhen examining cohorts separately and using all available variables in each cohort to calculate the PREDIGT Score, AUCs were 0.83 (95% CI 0.77-0.89) for DeNoPa and 0.87 (95% CI 0.84-0.9) for PPMI, respectively, in distinguishing Parkinson disease patients from healthy individuals. When combining DeNoPa and PPMI data sets by using eleven variables that had been collected in both cohorts, the PREDIGT Score discriminated patients from controls with an AUC of 0.84 (95% CI 0.81-0.87). The mean score of Parkinson disease patients was significantly higher than that of control individuals at 108.48 (+52.08) and 47.33 (+34.1), respectively (p < 0.0001).InterpretationOur results demonstrate a robust performance of the original PREDIGT Score in distinguishing patients diagnosed with Parkinson disease from neurologically healthy subjects without reliance on motor examination data. In future efforts, the predictive performance of the algorithm will be studied in longitudinal cohorts of at-risk persons.FundingParkinson Canada, Michael J. Fox Foundation, Department of Medicine (The Ottawa Hospital), Uttra & Subash Bhargava Family, Paracelsus-Elena-Klinik Kassel, Parkinson Fond Deutschland, and Deutsche Parkinson Vereinigung.

SUMMARYWe recently hypothesized that parkin plays a role in redox homeostasis and provided evidence that it directly reduces hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in vitro. Here, we examined this anti-oxidant activity in vivo. Informed by findings in human brain, we demonstrate that elevated oxidative stress promotes parkin insolubility in mice. In normal mouse brain parkin was partially oxidized, e.g., at cysteines 195 and 252, which was augmented by oxidative stress. Although under basal conditions H2O2 levels were unchanged in adult prkn-/- brain, a parkin-dependent reduction of cytosolic H2O2 was observed when mitochondria were impaired, either due to neurotoxicant exposure (MPTP) or Sod2 haploinsufficiency. In accordance, markers of oxidative stress, e.g., protein carbonylation and nitrotyrosination, were elevated in the cytosol but not in mitochondria from prkn-/- mice. Nevertheless, this rise in oxidative stress led to changes in mitochondrial enzyme activities and the metabolism of glutathione in cells and mammalian brain. In parkin’s absence reduced glutathione concentrations were increased including in human cortex. This compensation was not due to new glutathione synthesis but attributed to elevated oxidized glutathione (GSSG)-reductase activity. Moreover, we discovered that parkin also recycled GSSG to its reduced form. With this reaction, parkin became S-glutathionylated, e.g., at cysteines 59 and human-specific 95. This oxidative modification was reversed by glutaredoxin. Our results demonstrate that cytosolic parkin mediates anti-oxidant reactions including H2O2 reduction and glutathione regeneration. These reducing activities lead to a range of oxidative modifications in parkin itself. In parkin-deficient brain oxidative stress rises despite changes to maintain redox balance.

SUMMARYThe mechanisms by which Parkinson disease-linked parkin confers neuroprotection of human dopamine cells remain elusive. We hypothesized that its cysteines mediate multiple anti-oxidant effects in the midbrain. By studying >60 control specimens, we found that in adult human brain - but not in skeletal muscle- parkin is mostly aggregated and insoluble due to oxidative modifications, such as at C253. In vitro, parkin’s oxidation directly reduces hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to water. In parkin-deficient human brain, H2O2 concentrations are elevated. In dopamine toxicity studies, wild-type parkin -but not disease-associated mutants-prevents neural death by lowering H2O2 and sequestering radicals within insoluble aggregates. Parkin conjugates dopamine metabolites at the human-specific residue C95 and augments melanin formation in vitro. Using epitope-mapped antibodies, we found that in adult Substantia nigra neurons parkin localizes to neuromelanin within LAMP-3/CD63-positive lysosomes. We conclude that parkin’s own oxidation, previously considered a loss-of-function event, underlies three neuroprotective effects in adult midbrain: its cysteines participate in H2O2 reduction, dopamine radical conjugation and the formation of neuromelanin.

Background Autosomal recessive mutations in the glucocerebrosidase gene, Beta-glucocerebrosidase 1 (GBA1), cause the lysosomal storage disorder Gaucher's disease. Heterozygous carriers of most GBA1 mutations have dramatically increased Parkinson's disease (PD) risk, but the mechanisms and cells affected remain unknown. Glucocerebrosidase expression is relatively enriched in astrocytes, yet the impact of its mutation in these cells has not yet been addressed. Objectives Emerging data supporting non-cell-autonomous mechanisms driving PD pathogenesis inspired the first characterization of GBA1-mutant astrocytes. In addition, we asked whether LRRK2, likewise linked to PD and enriched in astrocytes, intersected with GBA1 phenotypes. Methods Using heterozygous and homozygous GBA1 D409V knockin mouse astrocytes, we conducted rigorous biochemical and image-based analyses of lysosomal function and morphology. We also examined basal and evoked cytokine response at the transcriptional and secretory levels. Results The D409V knockin astrocytes manifested broad deficits in lysosomal morphology and function, as expected. This, however, is the first study to show dramatic defects in basal and TLR4-dependent cytokine production. Albeit to different extents, both the lysosomal dysfunction and inflammatory responses were normalized by inhibition of LRRK2 kinase activity, suggesting functional intracellular crosstalk between glucocerebrosidase and LRRK2 activities in astrocytes. Conclusions These data demonstrate novel pathologic effects of a GBA1 mutation on inflammatory responses in astrocytes, indicating the likelihood of broader immunologic changes in GBA-PD patients. Our findings support the involvement of non-cell-autonomous mechanisms contributing to the pathogenesis of GBA1-linked PD and identify new opportunities to correct these changes with pharmacological intervention. © 2020 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Braak and Del Tredici have proposed that typical Parkinson disease (PD) has its origins in the olfactory bulb and gastrointestinal tract. However, the role of the olfactory system has insufficiently been explored in the pathogeneses of PD and Alzheimer disease (AD) in laboratory models. Here, we demonstrate applications of a new method to process mouse heads for microscopy by sectioning, mounting, and staining whole skulls (‘holocranohistochemistry’). This technique permits the visualization of the olfactory system from the nasal cavity to mitral cells and dopamine-producing interneurons of glomeruli in the olfactory bulb. We applied this method to two specific goals: first, to visualize PD- and AD-linked gene expression in the olfactory system, where we detected abundant, endogenous α-synuclein and tau expression in the olfactory epithelium. Furthermore, we observed amyloid-β plaques and proteinase-K-resistant α-synuclein species, respectively, in cranial nerve-I of APP- and human SNCA-over-expressing mice. The second application of the technique was to the modeling of gene–environment interactions in the nasal cavity of mice. We tracked the infection of a neurotropic respiratory-enteric-orphan virus from the nose pad into cranial nerves-I (and -V) and monitored the ensuing brain infection. Given its abundance in the olfactory epithelia, we questioned whether α-synuclein played a role in innate host defenses to modify the outcome of infections. Indeed, Snca-null mice were more likely to succumb to viral encephalitis versus their wild-type littermates. Moreover, using a bacterial sepsis model, Snca-null mice were less able to control infection after intravenous inoculation with Salmonella typhimurium. Together, holocranohistochemistry enabled new discoveries related to α-synuclein expression and its function in mice. Future studies will address: the role of Mapt and mutant SNCA alleles in infection paradigms; the contribution of xenobiotics in the initiation of idiopathic PD; and the safety to the host when systemically targeting α-synuclein by immunotherapy. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00702-017-1726-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Fifty‐five years after the concept of dopamine replacement therapy was introduced, Parkinson disease (PD) remains an incurable neurological disorder. To date, no disease‐modifying therapeutic has been approved. The inability to predict PD incidence risk in healthy adults is seen as a limitation in drug development, because by the time of clinical diagnosis ≥ 60% of dopamine neurons have been lost. We have designed an incidence prediction model founded on the concept that the pathogenesis of PD is similar to that of many disorders observed in ageing humans, i.e. a complex, multifactorial disease. Our model considers five factors to determine cumulative incidence rates for PD in healthy adults: (i) DNA variants that alter susceptibility (D), e.g. carrying a LRRK2 or GBA risk allele; (ii) Exposure history to select environmental factors including xenobiotics (E); (iii) Gene–environment interactions that initiate pathological tissue responses (I), e.g. a rise in ROS levels, misprocessing of amyloidogenic proteins (foremost, α‐synuclein) and dysregulated inflammation; (iv) sex (or gender; G); and importantly, (v) time (T) encompassing ageing‐related changes, latency of illness and propagation of disease. We propose that cumulative incidence rates for PD (P R) can be calculated in healthy adults, using the formula: P R (%) = (E + D + I) × G × T. Here, we demonstrate six case scenarios leading to young‐onset parkinsonism (n = 3) and late‐onset PD (n = 3). Further development and validation of this prediction model and its scoring system promise to improve subject recruitment in future intervention trials. Such efforts will be aimed at disease prevention through targeted selection of healthy individuals with a higher prediction score for developing PD in the future and at disease modification in subjects that already manifest prodromal signs.

Variants in the leucine-rich repeat kinase-2 (LRRK2) gene are associated with Parkinson's disease, leprosy, and Crohn's disease, three disorders with inflammation as an important component. Because of its high expression in granulocytes and CD68-positive cells, LRRK2 may have a function in innate immunity. We tested this hypothesis in two ways. First, adult mice were intravenously inoculated with Salmonella typhimurium, resulting in sepsis. Second, newborn mouse pups were intranasally infected with reovirus (serotype 3 Dearing), which induced encephalitis. In both mouse models, wild-type Lrrk2 expression was protective and showed a sex effect, with female Lrrk2-deficient animals not controlling infection as well as males. Mice expressing Lrrk2 carrying the Parkinson's disease-linked p.G2019S mutation controlled infection better, with reduced bacterial growth and longer animal survival during sepsis. This gain-of-function effect conferred by the p.G2019S mutation was mediated by myeloid cells and was abolished in animals expressing a kinase-dead Lrrk2 variant, p.D1994S. Mouse pups with reovirus-induced encephalitis that expressed the p.G2019S Lrrk2 mutation showed increased mortality despite lower viral titers. The p.G2019S mutant Lrrk2 augmented immune cell chemotaxis and generated more reactive oxygen species during virulent infection. Reovirus-infected brains from mice expressing the p.G2019S mutant Lrrk2 contained higher concentrations of α-synuclein. Animals expressing one or two p.D1994S Lrrk2 alleles showed lower mortality from reovirus-induced encephalitis. Thus, Lrrk2 alleles may alter the course of microbial infections by modulating inflammation, and this may be dependent on the sex and genotype of the host as well as the type of pathogen.

Receptor interacting protein kinase 3 (Ripk3) is a signal relay protein involved in initiation of programmed cell death (necroptosis) and modulation of inflammasome activation. While caspase 1 and 11 are pro-inflammatory caspases responsible for unleashing inflammation and cell death by enzymatic activation of the executioners of inflammation and cell death (pyroptosis). Upon Salmonella infection, the host mounts a pro-inflammatory response which require Ripk3 and Caspase1/11. Here we show that bone marrow derived macrophages with combined deficiency of Ripk3 and Casp1/11 are highly resistant to Salmonella induced cell death, and that these macrophages show an anti-inflammatory cytokine profile. We confirm what was previously known that mice deficient in Casp1/11 have impaired ability to control Salmonella burden, and that the absence of Ripk3 alone does not influence the innate immune responses to Salmonella infection. However, we describe a synergistic role of Ripk3 and Casp1/11 in regulating Salmonella in vivo burden and that Ripk3-dependent host protection in the absence of Casp1/11 is evident during infection by sifA-expressing Salmonella. In summary, we show that the Ripk3 protection to Salmonella infection is obscured by presence of Caspase 1/11 and that the Ripk3-dependent protection requires a phagosome-bound Salmonella.

Cerebrosides, including glucosylceramides (GlcCers) and galactosylceramides (GalCers), are important membrane components of animal cells with deficiencies resulting in devastating lysosomal storage disorders. Their quantification is essential for disease diagnosis and a better understanding of disease mechanisms. The simultaneous quantification of GlcCer and GalCer isomers is, however, particularly challenging due to their virtually identical structures. To address this challenge, we developed a new LC/MS-based method using differential ion mobility spectrometry (DMS) capable of rapidly and reproducibly separating and quantifying isomeric cerebrosides in a single run. We show that this LC/ESI/DMS/MS/MS method exhibits robust quantitative performance within an analyte concentration range of 2.8–355 nM. We further report the simultaneous quantification of nine GlcCers (16:0, 18:0, 20:0, 22:0, 23:0, 24:1, 24:0, 25:0, and 26:0) and five GalCers (16:0, 22:0, 23:0, 24:1, and 24:0) molecular species in human plasma, as well as six GalCers (18:0, 22:0, 23:0, 24:1, 24:0 and 25:0) and two GlcCers (24:1 and 24:0) in human cerebrospinal fluid. Our method expands the potential of DMS technology in the field of glycosphingolipid analysis for both biomarker discovery and drug screening by enabling the unambiguous assignment and quantification of cerebroside lipid species in biological samples.

We postulate that the frequently encountered grouping of different Parkinson disease (PD) variants into a single pathogenetic concept-rather than differentiation into its molecular subtypes-has hindered progress toward curative interventions. Parkinsonism is a clinical syndrome that in rare cases can be explained by a single genetic event or by a single environmental cause, thereby leading to monogenic PD and secondary parkinsonism, respectively. Under the former category, mutations in both alleles of the Parkin-encoding PARK2 gene leads to young-onset, autosomal recessive PD, in which neurodegeneration is restricted to dopamine-producing cells of the brainstem. Under the latter category, exposure to one of several environmental factors with neuroanatomic selectivity can cause rapid-onset, secondary parkinsonism most likely irrespective of the patient's age and genetic makeup. Sandwiched between these two extreme and rare types, the most common variant is referred to as late-onset, idiopathic PD. In extension of a disease model first proposed by Braak et al., we consider idiopathic PD the result of an encounter between one or several environmental triggers and one or more susceptibility alleles. Importantly, this interaction produces a pre-motor syndrome followed by the typical PD phenotype over a period of decades. In our opinion, this pathophysiological process should thus be viewed as a "complex disease." As is true for many complex human disorders, successful intervention for the common PD variant will likely occur when genetic leads as well as environmental contributors are targeted in parallel. However, successful proof-of-concept studies could arrive sooner, namely for select PD variants that can be attributed to a single genetic event and that are neuropathologically restricted. Therefore, the authors decided to focus the second portion of their review on treatment considerations regarding autosomal recessive PD cases that are caused by Parkin deficiency. We briefly draw attention to aspects of existing pharmacological and surgical therapies as they relate to the PARK2-linked variant; thereafter, we comment on new research avenues that are aimed at future therapeutic interventions to eventually slow or arrest the progression of a first variant of PD.

Glucocorticoids are synthesized locally in adipose tissue and contribute to metabolic disease through the facilitation of adipose tissue expansion. Here we report that exposure of human primary preadipocytes to glucocorticoids increases their sensitivity to insulin and enhances their subsequent response to stimuli that promote differentiation. This effect was observed in primary human preadipocytes but not in immortalized 3T3-L1 murine preadipocytes or in fully differentiated primary human adipocytes. Stimulation of insulin signaling was mediated through induction of insulin receptor (IR), IR substrate protein 1 (IRS1), IRS2, and the p85 regulatory subunit of phosphoinositide-3-3-kinase, which led to enhanced insulin-mediated activation of Akt. Although induction of IRS2 was direct, induction of IR and IRS1 by glucocorticoids occurred subsequent to primary induction of the forkhead family transcription factors FoxO1A and FoxO3A. These results reveal a new role for glucocorticoids in preparing preadipocytes for differentiation.

Preadipocyte differentiation in culture is driven by an insulin and cAMP dependant transcriptional cascade which induces the bzip transcription factors C/EBPbeta and C/EBPdelta. We have previously shown that glucocorticoid treatment, which strongly potentiates this differentiation pathway, stimulates the titration of the corepressor histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) from C/EBPbeta. This results in a dramatic enhancement of C/EBPbeta-dependent transcription from the C/EBPalpha promoter, concomitant with potentiation of preadipocyte differentiation. Here, we show that C/EBPbeta is acetylated by GCN5 and PCAF within a cluster of lysine residues between amino acids 98-102 and that this acetylation is strongly induced by glucocorticoid treatment. Arginine substitution of the lysine residues within the acetylation motif of C/EBPbeta prevented acetylation and blocked the ability of glucocorticoids to enhance C/EBPbeta-directed transcription and to potentiate C/EBPbeta-dependent preadipocyte differentiation. Moreover, acetylation of C/EBPbeta appeared to directly interfere with the interaction of HDAC1 with C/EBPbeta, suggesting that PCAF/GCN5-dependent acetylation of C/EBPbeta serves as an important molecular switch in determining the transcriptional regulatory potential of this transcription factor.

Glucocorticoids provide an adipogenic stimulus that is most obvious in the truncal obesity of patients with Cushing's syndrome. Glucocorticoid treatment also strongly potentiates the differentiation of human preadipocytes in culture. However, the molecular basis of these stimulatory effects remains to be defined. In this study, we provide a detailed analysis of the specific contribution of glucocorticoid treatment to the differentiation of primary human preadipocytes cultured in chemically defined medium. Contrary to previous descriptions of glucocorticoids being required throughout the course of differentiation, our results show that glucocorticoid treatment is stimulatory only during the first 48 h of differentiation. Furthermore, stimulation by glucocorticoids and the peroxisome proliferator activator receptor-gamma agonist troglitazone is mediated sequentially. Several details of the early events in the differentiation of human preadipocytes and the contribution of steroid to these events differ from the responses observed previously in murine preadipocyte models. First, glucocorticoid treatment stimulated the early accumulation of CCAAT enhancer binding protein-beta (C/EBPbeta) in primary human preadipocytes. Second, induction of C/EBPalpha in primary human preadipocytes was noted within 4 h of adipogenic stimulus, whereas C/EBPalpha induction is not detected until 24-48 h in the murine 3T3 L1 preadipocyte model. Remarkably, by contrast to human primary preadipocytes, which do not undergo postconfluent mitosis, 3T3 L1 murine preadipocytes stimulated to differentiate under chemically defined conditions required glucocorticoids to survive the clonal expansion that precedes terminal differentiation, revealing a novel signal imparted by glucocorticoids in this immortalized murine cell system.

Ku antigen is an abundant nuclear protein with multiple functions that depend mainly on Ku's prolific and highly verstatile interactions with DNA. We have shown previously that the direct binding of Ku in vitro to negative regulatory element 1 (NRE1), a transcriptional regulatory element in the long terminal repeat of mouse mammary tumour virus, correlates with the regulation of viral transcription by Ku. In this study, we have sought to explore the interaction of Ku with NRE1 in vivo in yeast one-hybrid experiments. Unexpectedly, we observed that human Ku70 carrying a transcriptional activation domain from the yeast Gal4 protein induced transcription of yeast reporter genes pleiotrophically, independent of NRE1, promoter, reporter gene and chromosomal location. Ku80 with the same activation domain had no effect on transcription when expressed alone, but reconstituted activation when co-expressed with native human Ku70. The requirements for transcriptional activation by Ku-Gal4 activation domain proteins correlated with previous descriptions of the requirements for DNA sequence-independent DNA binding by Ku, but were distinct from determinants for DNA-end binding by a truncated Ku heterodimer determined recently by crystallography. These results suggest a preferential targeting of Ku to transcriptionally active chromatin that indicate a possible function for Ku within the RNA polymerase II holoenzyme.

Heterozygous mutations in the GBA1 gene elevate the risk of Parkinson disease and dementia with Lewy bodies; both disorders are characterized by misprocessing of α-synuclein (SNCA). A loss in lysosomal acid-β-glucosidase enzyme (GCase) activity due to biallelic GBA1 mutations underlies Gaucher disease. We explored mechanisms for the gene's association with increased synucleinopathy risk.We analyzed the effects of wild-type (WT) and several GBA mutants on SNCA in cellular and in vivo models using biochemical and immunohistochemical protocols.We observed that overexpression of all GBA mutants examined (N370S, L444P, D409H, D409V, E235A, and E340A) significantly raised human SNCA levels to 121 to 248% of vector control (p0.029) in neural MES23.5 and PC12 cells, but without altering GCase activity. Overexpression of WT GBA in neural and HEK293-SNCA cells increased GCase activity, as expected (ie, to 167% in MES-SNCA, 128% in PC12-SNCA, and 233% in HEK293-SNCA; p0.002), but had mixed effects on SNCA. Nevertheless, in HEK293-SNCA cells high GCase activity was associated with SNCA reduction by ≤32% (p = 0.009). Inhibition of cellular GCase activity (to 8-20% of WT; p0.0017) did not detectably alter SNCA levels. Mutant GBA-induced SNCA accumulation could be pharmacologically reversed in D409V-expressing PC12-SNCA cells by rapamycin, an autophagy-inducer (≤40%; 10μM; p0.02). Isofagomine, a GBA chaperone, showed a related trend. In mice expressing two D409Vgba knockin alleles without signs of Gaucher disease (residual GCase activity, ≥20%), we recorded an age-dependent rise of endogenous Snca in hippocampal membranes (125% vs WT at 52 weeks; p = 0.019). In young Gaucher disease mice (V394Lgba+/+//prosaposin[ps]-null//ps-transgene), which demonstrate neurological dysfunction after age 10 weeks (GCase activity, ≤10%), we recorded no significant change in endogenous Snca levels at 12 weeks of age. However, enhanced neuronal ubiquitin signals and axonal spheroid formation were already present. The latter changes were similar to those seen in three week-old cathepsin D-deficient mice.Our results demonstrate that GBA mutants promote SNCA accumulation in a dose- and time-dependent manner, thereby identifying a biochemical link between GBA1 mutation carrier status and increased synucleinopathy risk. In cell culture models, this gain of toxic function effect can be mitigated by rapamycin. Loss in GCase activity did not immediately raise SNCA concentrations, but first led to neuronal ubiquitinopathy and axonal spheroids, a phenotype shared with other lysosomal storage disorders.

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.