The most noticeable symptoms of Parkinson’s disease occur because of the loss of a small but vital population of dopamine-generating neurons in the brain. The condition is associated with the spread of misfolded, aggregated α-synuclein throughout brain tissue. α-synuclein is one of the few molecules in the body capable of misfolding in ways that encourage other molecules o α-synuclein to also misfold in the same way. It can thus spread from cell to cell, perhaps carried in extracellular vesicles. It is thought that misfolding of α-synuclein often f…
Arguing for Mitochondrial DNA Damage to Spread Between Neurons in Parkinson's Disease
The most noticeable symptoms of Parkinson’s disease occur because of the loss of a small but vital population of dopamine-generating neurons in the brain. The condition is associated with the spread of misfolded, aggregated α-synuclein throughout brain tissue. α-synuclein is one of the few molecules in the body capable of misfolding in ways that encourage other molecules o α-synuclein to also misfold in the same way. It can thus spread from cell to cell, perhaps carried in extracellular vesicles. It is thought that misfolding of α-synuclein often f…