AsianScientist (Dec. 23, 2015) – Scientists have for the first time explained the secondary structure of Lewy bodies, the abnormal build-up of protein that develops inside nerve cells in the brain of Parkinson’s disease patients. This secondary structural information, described in a study published in Scientific Reports, may be important in the development of drugs to treat Parkinson’s.
The findings were achieved through the use of a synchrotron Fourier transform infrared micro-spectroscopy (FTIRM), by researchers led by Katsuya Araki (Clinical Fellow) and Professor Hideki Mochizuki at Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, in cooperation with Dr. Naoto Yagi of the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute.
In recent years, many researchers have focused on the new treatment to inhibit the formation of abnormal protein aggregates which can delay the onset and progression of Parkinson’s. This research result and method may provide important clues to the development of treatment for Parkinson’s.
Lewy bodies, which mainly consist of α-synuclein, are neuropathological hallmarks of patients with Parkinson’s. The fine structure of Lewy bodies is unknown, and they cannot be made artificially. Nevertheless, many studies have described fibrillization using recombinant α-synuclein purified from E. coli.
A fundamental problem is whether the structure of Lewy bodies is the same as that of recombinant amyloid fibrils. The researchers used synchrotron FTIRM to analyse the fine structure of Lewy bodies in the brain of Parkinson’s patients. The results showed a shift in the infrared spectrum that indicates abundance of a β-sheet-rich structure in Lewy bodies.
Additionally, 2D infrared mapping of Lewy bodies revealed that the content of the β-sheet structure is higher in the peripheral region (halo) than in the core, and the central region (core) contains a large amount of proteins and lipids.
The article can be found at: Araki et al. (2015) Synchrotron FTIR Micro-spectroscopy for Structural Analysis of Lewy Bodies in the Brain of Parkinson’s Disease Patients.
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Source: Osaka University.
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