Alpha-synuclein is central to Parkinson's disease pathogenesis and pathology, however its precise functions are still unclear. It has been shown to bind both PLCβ1 and MAPKs, but how this property influences the downstream signaling of Gq protein-coupled receptors has not been elucidated. Here we show that recombinant expression of alpha-synuclein in human neuroblastoma cells enhances cellular levels of PLCβ1 but blunts its signaling pathway, preventing the agonist-dependent rise of cytoplasmic Ca(2+). In addition, overexpressing alpha-synuclein abolishes the activation of ERK1/2 upon agonist stimulation, indicating an upstream action in the signal transduction pathway. This data demonstrate that alpha-synuclein, when recombinantly expressed, interferes with the normal signaling of Gq-protein coupled receptors, which are then dysfunctional. Since many neurotransmitter systems utilize these receptor signaling pathways to mediate different abilities affected in Parkinson's disease, we argue this novel perspective might be helpful in designing treatment strategies for some of the non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease and synucleinopathies.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 11. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 04 June 2025.
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Altmetric has tracked 28,879,505 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 87th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,374 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 3.4. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its peers.
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