Dopamine-Induced Conformational Changes in Alpha-Synuclein
Open Access
- 4 September 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLOS ONE
- Vol. 4 (9), e6906
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0006906
Abstract
Oligomerization and aggregation of alpha-synuclein molecules play a major role in neuronal dysfunction and loss in Parkinson's disease [1]. However, alpha-synuclein oligomerization and aggregation have mostly been detected indirectly in cells using detergent extraction methods [2], [3], [4]. A number of in vitro studies showed that dopamine can modulate the aggregation of alpha-synuclein by inhibiting the formation of or by disaggregating amyloid fibrils [5], [6], [7].Here, we show that alpha-synuclein adopts a variety of conformations in primary neuronal cultures using fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). Importantly, we found that dopamine, but not dopamine agonists, induced conformational changes in alpha-synuclein which could be prevented by blocking dopamine transport into the cell. Dopamine also induced conformational changes in alpha-synuclein expressed in neuronal cell lines, and these changes were also associated with alterations in oligomeric/aggregated species.Our results show, for the first time, a direct effect of dopamine on the conformation of alpha-synuclein in neurons, which may help explain the increased vulnerability of dopaminergic neurons in Parkinson's diseaseThis publication has 36 references indexed in Scilit:
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