Inflammation and α-Synuclein’s Prion-like Behavior in Parkinson's Disease—Is There a
 

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease patients exhibit progressive spreading of aggregated α-synuclein in the nervous system. This slow process follows a specific pattern in an inflamed tissue environment. Recent research suggests that prion-like mechanisms contribute to the propagation of α-synuclein pathology. Little is known about factors that might affect the prion-like behavior of misfolded α-synuclein. In this review, we suggest that neuroinflammation plays an important role. We discuss causes of inflammation in the olfactory bulb and gastrointestinal tract and how this may promote the initial misfolding and aggregation of α-synuclein, which might set in motion events that lead to Parkinson's disease neuropathology. We propose that neuroinflammation promotes the prion-like behavior of α-synuclein and that novel anti-inflammatory therapies targeting this mechanism could slow disease progression.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3589652/

The paper by Tome et al. represents what I believe to be the mainstream view that alpha-synuclein misfolding and aggregation play a key role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's.

What's this got to do with us? In my opinion, a lot:
1. there is probably not just one etiology of PD - anything that speeds up the misfolding of alpha-synuclein is bad.
2. the toxin assault continues during the course of the disease.
For instance, aluminium and avian flu are mentioned.

Tome et al. speculate "that it will be possible to develop therapies which slow down the progression of PD by reducing the underlying inflammation and mitigating its effects on cell-to-cell α-syn transfer. In addition, it is conceivable that it would be possible to adopt a preventive strategy and lower the risk of developing PD by treating the triggers of inflammation in the olfactory or gastrointestinal system."

This way of looking at the disease should give us hope that there are things that we can do to slow progression. For instance, curcumin and exercise have been linked to a reduced risk of misfolding.

Tag johnt:alpha-synuclein

John

i believe people taking ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatory drugs on a regular basis, i imagine for arthritis, chronic pain, have a lower incidence of pd.

in animal models, all sorts of inflammatory supplements reduce pd symptoms if the rat is pretreated before given a pd causing drug. i've read studies where ginseng, cucurmin, tea have that affect in rat experiments.