There is much interest at the moment in the role of alpha-synuclein in the pathogenesis PD. I thought it would be interesting to go through my posts, most of which were based on epidemiological evidence, and see if there were any implications of an involvement of alpha-synuclein.

Hong et al. write [1]:
"We show that nicotine and hydroquinone inhibit α-synuclein fibril formation in a concentration-dependent manner, with nicotine being more effective."

This suggests that smoking reduces both the incidence of PD and its rate of progression.

tag johnt:alpha-synuclein

References:

[1] "Smoking and Parkinson’s disease: Does nicotine affect α-synuclein fibrillation?"
Dong-Pyo Hong, Anthony L. Fink, and Vladimir N. Uversky
Biochim Biophys Acta. 2009 February; 1794(2): 282–290.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2647853/

John