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Updated: Nov 18, 2025

Studying Pre-formed Fibril Induced α-Synuclein Accumulation in Primary Embryonic Mouse Midbrain Dopamine Neurons
Published on: August 16, 2020
α-synuclein impairs autophagosome maturation through abnormal actin stabilization
Souvarish Sarkar1, Abby L Olsen2, Katja Sygnecka1
1Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Abstract:
Vesicular trafficking defects, particularly those in the autophagolysosomal system, have been strongly implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease and related α-synucleinopathies. However, mechanisms mediating dysfunction of membrane trafficking remain incompletely understood. Using a Drosophila model of α-synuclein neurotoxicity with widespread and robust pathology, we find that human α-synuclein expression impairs autophagic flux in aging adult neurons. Genetic destabilization of the actin cytoskeleton rescues F-actin accumulation, promotes autophagosome clearance, normalizes the autophagolysosomal system, and rescues neurotoxicity in α-synuclein transgenic animals through an Arp2/3 dependent mechanism. Similarly, mitophagosomes accumulate in human α-synuclein-expressing neurons, and reversal of excessive actin stabilization promotes both clearance of these abnormal mitochondria-containing organelles and rescue of mitochondrial dysfunction. These results suggest that Arp2/3 dependent actin cytoskeleton stabilization mediates autophagic and mitophagic dysfunction and implicate failure of autophagosome maturation as a pathological mechanism in Parkinson's disease and related α-synucleinopathies.
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