Slowly-Migrating α-Synuclein Forms Are Found in the Brains of Patients with Parkinsons Disease

α-Synuclein is a pivotal genetic factor implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinsons disease (PD), since pathogenic α-synuclein gene mutations occur in rare familial PD and wild-type α-synuclein appears to be a major component of Lewy bodies observed in PD. The main goal of this study was to determine whether the expression patterns of α-synuclein are differentially affected in the brains of PD, compared to normal controls. Here, we showed that new forms of the slowly-migrating α-synuclein were detected from the striatum, a region selectively affected in PD, in the brain of the patients with PD, but not from cerebellum of PD and normal controls. Moreover, these forms of α-synuclein were observed from the right brain that has a unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesioned nigrostriatal system in a rat model of PD. The results suggest that the new differential alteration in α-synuclein might be associated with the pathogenesis of PD.