A new Perspective on Parkinson's disease: exploring the involvement of intestine and vagus lysates in α-synucleinopathy propagation

In Parkinson's disease (PD), the accumulation of misfolded α-synuclein (α-syn) in the brain is a major characteristic of the pathology. α-Syn formation and aggregation may originate in the enteric nervous system and pathologic α-syn can be transmitted to the central nervous system via the vagus nerve. In this commentary, we summarize the findings of Yang et al.[1] in which they report on the ability of a Parkinson’s disease patient's intestinal and vagus lysates containing pathologic α-syn to template endogenous rat α-syn culminating in the spread of pathologic α-syn, deposition of pathologic α-syn, and neuroinflammation in different brain regions and neurodegeneration of dopamine neurons. These observations are discussed with other studies supporting the significance of the gastrointestinal system in PD pathogenesis and future directions of research are highlighted.