RIKEN Research: Refined test could improve Parkinson’s disease diagnosis

A team that includes a RIKEN researcher has refined a lab test for measuring protein aggregate levels in samples from patients with certain neurodegenerative diseases1. This has the potential to improve diagnosis and drug development for these diseases.
Synucleinopathies are neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. They are associated with the accumulation of aggregates of misfolded alpha-synuclein proteins in the brain and spinal cord.
“When a misfolded alpha-synuclein protein in a neuron encounters one of its properly folded counterparts, it causes it to become misfolded,” says Catherine Beauchemin of the RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences. “The two misfolded alpha-synuclein proteins stick together and cause other normal alpha-synuclein to misfold and aggregate.”

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