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Updated: Aug 21, 2026

Studying Pre-formed Fibril Induced α-Synuclein Accumulation in Primary Embryonic Mouse Midbrain Dopamine Neurons
Published on: August 16, 2020
alpha-Synuclein produces a long-lasting increase in neurotransmitter release
Shumin Liu1, Ipe Ninan, Irina Antonova
1Department of Pathology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
Abstract:
Wild-type alpha-synuclein, a protein of unknown function, has received much attention because of its involvement in a series of diseases that are known as synucleinopathies. We find that long-lasting potentiation of synaptic transmission between cultured hippocampal neurons is accompanied by an increase in the number of alpha-synuclein clusters. Conversely, suppression of alpha-synuclein expression through antisense nucleotide and knockout techniques blocks the potentiation, as well as the glutamate-induced increase in presynaptic functional bouton number. Consistent with these findings, alpha-synuclein introduction into the presynaptic neuron of a pair of monosynaptically connected cells causes a rapid and long-lasting enhancement of synaptic transmission, and rescues the block of potentiation in alpha-synuclein null mouse cultures. Also, we report that the application of nitric oxide (NO) increases the number of alpha-synuclein clusters, and inhibitors of NO-synthase block this increase, supporting the hypothesis that NO is involved in the enhancement of the number of alpha-synuclein clusters. Thus, alpha-synuclein is involved in synaptic plasticity by augmenting transmitter release from the presynaptic terminal.
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