Prion-like Manner Research Articles

DnaJ/Hsc70 chaperone complexes control the extracellular release of neurodegenerative-associated proteins.

It is now known that proteins associated with neurodegenerative disease can spread throughout the brain in a prionlike manner. However, the mechanisms regulating the trans-synaptic spread propagation, including the neuronal release of these proteins, remain unknown. The interaction of neurodegenerative disease-associated proteins with the molecular chaperone Hsc70 is well known, and we hypothesized that much like disaggregation, refolding, degradation, and even normal function, Hsc70 may dictate the extracellular fate of these proteins. Here, we show that several proteins, including TDP-43, α-synuclein, and the microtubule-associated protein tau, can be driven out of the cell by an Hsc70 co-chaperone, DnaJC5. In fact, DnaJC5 overexpression induced tau release in cells, neurons, and brain tissue, but only when activity of the chaperone Hsc70 was intact and when tau was able to associate with this chaperone. Moreover, release of tau from neurons was reduced in mice lacking the DnaJC5 gene and when the complement of DnaJs in the cell was altered. These results demonstrate that the dynamics of DnaJ/Hsc70 complexes are critically involved in the release of neurodegenerative disease proteins.

Extracellular Vesicles Isolated from the Brains of rTg4510 Mice Seed Tau Protein Aggregation in a Threshold-dependent Manner

The microtubule-associated protein tau has a critical role in Alzheimer disease and related tauopathies. There is accumulating evidence that tau aggregates spread and replicate in a prion-like manner, with the uptake of pathological tau seeds causing misfolding and aggregation of monomeric tau in recipient cells. Here we focused on small extracellular vesicles enriched for exosomes that were isolated from the brains of tau transgenic rTg4510 and control mice. We found that these extracellular vesicles contained tau, although the levels were significantly higher in transgenic mice that have a pronounced tau pathology. Tau in the vesicles was differentially phosphorylated, although to a lower degree than in the brain cells from which they were derived. Several phospho-epitopes (AT8, AT100, and AT180) thought to be critical for tau pathology were undetected in extracellular vesicles. Despite this, when assayed with FRET tau biosensor cells, extracellular vesicles derived from transgenic mice were capable of seeding tau aggregation in a threshold-dependent manner. We also observed that the dye used to label extracellular vesicle membranes was still present during nucleation and formation of tau inclusions, suggesting either a role for membranes in the seeding or in the process of degradation. Together, we clearly demonstrate that extracellular vesicles can transmit tau pathology. This indicates a role for extracellular vesicles in the transmission and spreading of tau pathology. The characteristics of tau in extracellular vesicles and the seeding threshold we identified may explain why tau pathology develops very slowly in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer disease.

GABA transmission via ATP-dependent K+channels regulates α-synuclein secretion in mouse striatum

α-Synuclein is readily released in human and mouse brain parenchyma, even though the normal function of the secreted protein has not been yet elucidated. Under pathological conditions, such as in Parkinson's disease, pathologically relevant species of α-synuclein have been shown to propagate between neurons in a prion-like manner, although the mechanism by which α-synuclein transfer induces degeneration remains to be identified. Due to this evidence extracellular α-synuclein is now considered a critical target to hinder disease progression in Parkinson's disease. Given the importance of extracellular α-synuclein levels, we have now investigated the molecular pathway of α-synuclein secretion in mouse brain. To this end, we have identified a novel synaptic network that regulates α-synuclein release in mouse striatum. In this brain area, the majority of α-synuclein is localized in corticostriatal glutamatergic terminals. Absence of α-synuclein from the lumen of brain-isolated synaptic vesicles suggested that they are unlikely to mediate its release. To dissect the mechanism of α-synuclein release, we have used reverse microdialysis to locally administer reagents that locally target specific cellular pathways. Using this approach, we show that α-synuclein secretion in vivo is a calcium-regulated process that depends on the activation of sulfonylurea receptor 1-sensitive ATP-regulated potassium channels. Sulfonylurea receptor 1 is distributed in the cytoplasm of GABAergic neurons from where the ATP-dependent channel regulates GABA release. Using a combination of specific agonists and antagonists, we were able to show that, in the striatum, modulation of GABA release through the sulfonylurea receptor 1-regulated ATP-dependent potassium channels located on GABAergic neurons controls α-synuclein release from the glutamatergic terminals through activation of the presynaptic GABAB receptors. Considering that sulfonylurea receptors can be selectively targeted, our study highlights the potential use of the key molecules in the α-synuclein secretory pathway to aid the discovery of novel therapeutic interventions for Parkinson's disease.

Review: Spreading the word: precise animal models and validated methods are vital when evaluating prion-like behaviour of alpha-synuclein.

Synucleinopathies are characterized by abnormal proteinaceous aggregates, mainly composed of fibrillar α-synuclein (α-syn). It is now believed that α-syn can form small aggregates in a restricted number of cells, that propagate to neighbouring cells and seed aggregation of endogenous α-syn, in a 'prion-like manner'. This process could underlie the stereotypical progression of Lewy bodies described by Braak and colleagues across different stages of Parkinson's disease (PD). This prion-like behaviour of α-syn has been recently investigated in animal models of PD or multiple system atrophy (MSA). These models investigate the cell-to-cell transfer of α-syn seeds, or the induction and spreading of α-syn pathology in transgenic or wild-type rodent brain. In this review, we first outline the involvement of α-syn in Lewy body diseases and MSA, and discuss how 'prion-like' mechanisms can contribute to disease. Thereon, we debate the relevance of animal models used to study prion-like propagation. Finally, we review current main histological methods used to assess α-syn pathology both in animal models and in human samples and their relevance to the disease. Specifically, we discuss using α-syn phosphorylated at serine 129 as a marker of pathology, and the novel methods available that allow for more sensitive detection of early pathology, which has relevance for modelling synucleinopathies.

α-Synuclein and huntingtin exon 1 amyloid fibrils bind laterally to the cellular membrane.

Fibrillar aggregates involved in neurodegenerative diseases have the ability to spread from one cell to another in a prion-like manner. The underlying molecular mechanisms, in particular the binding mode of the fibrils to cell membranes, are poorly understood. In this work we decipher the modality by which aggregates bind to the cellular membrane, one of the obligatory steps of the propagation cycle. By characterizing the binding properties of aggregates made of α-synuclein or huntingtin exon 1 protein displaying similar composition and structure but different lengths to mammalian cells we demonstrate that in both cases aggregates bind laterally to the cellular membrane, with aggregates extremities displaying little or no role in membrane binding. Lateral binding to artificial liposomes was also observed by transmission electron microscopy. In addition we show that although α-synuclein and huntingtin exon 1 fibrils bind both laterally to the cellular membrane, their mechanisms of interaction differ. Our findings have important implications for the development of future therapeutic tools that aim to block protein aggregates propagation in the brain.

Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase augments the intercellular transmission and toxicity of polyglutamine aggregates in a cell model of Huntington disease.

The common feature of Huntington disease is the accumulation of oligomers or aggregates of mutant huntingtin protein (mHTT), which causes the death of a subset of striatal neuronal populations. The cytotoxic species can leave neurons and migrate to other groups of cells penetrating and damaging them in a prion-like manner. We hypothesized that the glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), previously shown to elevate the aggregation of mHTT, is associated with an increased efficiency of intercellular propagation of mHTT. GAPDH, on its own or together with polyglutamine species, was shown to be released into the extracellular milieu mainly from dying cells as assessed by a novel enzyme immunoassay, western blotting, and ultrafiltration. The conditioned medium of cells with growing GAPDH-polyQ aggregates was toxic to naïve cells, whereas depletion of the aggregates from the medium lowered this cytotoxicity. The GAPDH component of the aggregates was found to increase their toxicity by two-fold in comparison with polyQ alone. Furthermore, GAPDH-polyQ complexes were shown to penetrate acceptor cells and to increase the capacity of polyQ to prionize its intracellular homolog containing a repeat of 25 glutamine residues. Finally, inhibitors of intracellular transport showed that polyQ-GAPDH complexes, as well as GAPDH itself, penetrated cells using clathrin-mediated endocytosis. This suggested a pivotal role of the enzyme in the intercellular transmission of Huntington disease pathogenicity. In conclusion, GAPDH occurring in complexes with polyglutamine strengthens the prion-like activity and toxicity of the migrating aggregates. Aggregating polygluatmine tracts were shown to release from the cells over-expressing mutant huntingtin in a complex with glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH). The enzyme enhances the intracellular transport of aggregates to healthy cells, prionization of normal cellular proteins and finally cell death, thus demonstrating the pivotal role of GAPDH in the horizontal transmission of neurodegeneration.

Structure determination of helical filaments by solid-state NMR spectroscopy

The controlled formation of filamentous protein complexes plays a crucial role in many biological systems and represents an emerging paradigm in signal transduction. The mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein (MAVS) is a central signal transduction hub in innate immunity that is activated by a receptor-induced conversion into helical superstructures (filaments) assembled from its globular caspase activation and recruitment domain. Solid-state NMR (ssNMR) spectroscopy has become one of the most powerful techniques for atomic resolution structures of protein fibrils. However, for helical filaments, the determination of the correct symmetry parameters has remained a significant hurdle for any structural technique and could thus far not be precisely derived from ssNMR data. Here, we solved the atomic resolution structure of helical MAVS(CARD) filaments exclusively from ssNMR data. We present a generally applicable approach that systematically explores the helical symmetry space by efficient modeling of the helical structure restrained by interprotomer ssNMR distance restraints. Together with classical automated NMR structure calculation, this allowed us to faithfully determine the symmetry that defines the entire assembly. To validate our structure, we probed the protomer arrangement by solvent paramagnetic resonance enhancement, analysis of chemical shift differences relative to the solution NMR structure of the monomer, and mutagenesis. We provide detailed information on the atomic contacts that determine filament stability and describe mechanistic details on the formation of signaling-competent MAVS filaments from inactive monomers.

Prion-like features of misfolded Aβ and tau aggregates

Recent findings have shown that several misfolded proteins can transmit disease pathogenesis in a prion-like manner by transferring their conformational properties to normally folded units. However, the extent by which these molecule-to-molecule or cell-to-cell spreading processes reflect the entire prion behavior is now subject of controversy, especially due to the lack of epidemiological data supporting inter-individual transmission of non-prion protein misfolding diseases. Nevertheless, extensive research has shown that several of the typical characteristics of prions can be observed for Aβ and tau aggregates when administered in animal models. In this article we review recent studies describing the prion-like features of both proteins, highlighting the similarities with bona fide prions in terms of inter-individual transmission, their strain-like conformational diversity, and the transmission of misfolded aggregates by different routes of administration.

Solid-state NMR resonance assignments of the filament-forming CARD domain of the innate immunity signaling protein MAVS.

The mitochondrial antiviral signalling protein (MAVS) is a central signal transduction hub in the innate immune response against viral infections. Viral RNA present in the cytoplasm is detected by retinoic acid inducible gene I like receptors, which then activate MAVS via heterotypic interactions between their respective caspase activation and recruitment domains (CARD). This leads to the formation of active, high molecular weight MAVS complexes formed by homotypic interactions between the single N-terminal CARDs of MAVS. Filaments formed by the N-terminal MAVS(CARD) alone are sufficient to induce the autocatalytic conversion from a monomeric to an aggregated state in a prion-like manner. Here, we present the nearly complete spectroscopic (13)C and (15)N resonance assignments of human MAVS(CARD) filaments obtained from a single sample by magic angle spinning solid-state NMR spectroscopy. The corresponding secondary chemical shifts suggest that the filamentous form of MAVS(CARD) retains an exclusively alpha-helical fold that is very similar to the X-ray structure determined previously from monomeric MAVS(CARD)-maltose binding protein fusion constructs.

Novel therapeutic approaches in multiple system atrophy.

Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a sporadic, adult onset, relentlessly progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by autonomic abnormalities associated with parkinsonism, cerebellar dysfunction, pyramidal signs, or combinations thereof. Treatments that can halt or reverse the progression of MSA have not yet been identified. MSA is neuropathologically defined by the presence of α-synuclein-containing inclusions, particularly in the cytoplasm of oligodendrocytes (glial cytoplasmic inclusions, GCIs), which are associated with neurodegeneration. The mechanisms by which oligodendrocytic α-synuclein inclusions cause neuronal death in MSA are not completely understood. The MSA neurodegenerative process likely comprises cell-to-cell transmission of α-synuclein in a prion-like manner, α-synuclein aggregation, increased oxidative stress, abnormal expression of tubulin proteins, decreased expression of neurotrophic factors, excitotoxicity and microglial activation, and neuroinflammation. In an attempt to block each of these pathogenic mechanisms, several pharmacologic approaches have been tried and shown to exert neuroprotective effects in transgenic mouse or cellular models of MSA. These include sertraline, paroxetine, and lithium, which hamper arrival of α-synuclein to oligodendroglia; rifampicin, lithium, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which inhibit α-synuclein aggregation in oligodendrocytes; riluzole, rasagiline, fluoxetine and mesenchymal stem cells, which exert neuroprotective actions; and minocycline and intravenous immunoglobulins, which reduce neuroinflammation and microglial activation. These and other potential therapeutic strategies for MSA are summarized in this review.

The neurobiology of dysautonomia in Parkinson's disease

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) include a large variety of disorders that affects specific areas of the central nervous system, leading to psychiatric and movement pathologies. A common feature that characterizes these disorders is the neuronal formation and accumulation of misfolded protein aggregates that lead to cell death. In particular, different proteinaceous aggregates accumulate to trigger a variety of clinical manifestations: prion protein (PrPSc) in prion diseases, β-amyloid (Aβ) in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), α-synuclein in Parkinson’s disease (PD), huntingtin in Huntington’s disease (HD), superoxide dismutase and TDP-43 in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), tau in tauopathies. Non-motor alterations also occur in several viscera, in particular the gastrointestinal tract. These often precede the onset of motor symptoms by several years. For this reason, dysautonomic changes can be predictive of NDs and their correct recognition is being assuming a remarkable importance. This peculiar feature led more and more to the concept that neurodegeneration may initiate in the periphery and propagate retrogradely towards the central nervous system in a prion-like manner. In recent years, a particular attention was dedicated to the clinical assessment of autonomic disorders in patients affected by NDs. In this respect, experimental animal models have been developed to understand the neurobiology underlying these effects as well as to investigate autonomic changes in peripheral organs. This review summarizes experimental studies that have been carried out to understand autonomic symptoms in NDs, with the purpose to provide appropriate tools for comprehensive and integrated studies.

The neurobiology of dysautonomia in Parkinson's disease.

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) include a large variety of disorders that affects specific areas of the centralnervous system, leading to psychiatric and movement pathologies. A common feature that characterizes thesedisorders is the neuronal formation and accumulation of misfolded protein aggregates that lead to cell death. Inparticular, different proteinaceous aggregates accumulate to trigger a variety of clinical manifestations: prionprotein (PrPSc) in prion diseases, β-amyloid (Aβ) in Alzheimer's disease (AD), α-synuclein in Parkinson's disease(PD), huntingtin in Huntington's disease (HD), superoxide dismutase and TDP-43 in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS), tau in tauopathies. Non-motor alterations also occur in several viscera, in particular the gastrointestinaltract. These often precede the onset of motor symptoms by several years. For this reason, dysautonomic changescan be predictive of NDs and their correct recognition is being assuming a remarkable importance. This peculiarfeature led more and more to the concept that neurodegeneration may initiate in the periphery and propagate retrogradelytowards the central nervous system in a prion-like manner. In recent years, a particular attention wasdedicated to the clinical assessment of autonomic disorders in patients affected by NDs. In this respect, experimentalanimal models have been developed to understand the neurobiology underlying these effects as well as toinvestigate autonomic changes in peripheral organs. This review summarizes experimental studies that have beencarried out to understand autonomic symptoms in NDs, with the purpose to provide appropriate tools for comprehensiveand integrated studies.

Neurodegenerative lesions: Seeding and spreading

Accumulation of specific proteins has replaced loss of specific populations of neurons in the definition of most neurodegenerative diseases. In some cases, the amino-acid sequence of the protein that accumulates is altered by a mutation in the gene that codes for it but most generally, the primary structure is normal. Much evidence from human neuropathology has been collected over the years indicating that the progression of the lesions in such neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy follow the neuroanatomical connections. More recently, injection of aggregates of the specific proteins in the brain of experimental animals has been attempted in various experimental settings. Brain homogenates containing Aβ aggregates induce the early development of Aβ deposits in APP transgenic mice. Brain homogenates from various human tauopathies induce tau aggregates in transgenic mice expressing normal human tau. Finally, synthetic preformed fibrils of alpha-synuclein initiate the development of alpha-synuclein accumulation resembling Parkinson's disease in wild-type mice. Experiments in cell cultures suggest that the protein has to be in some specific state of oligomerization or fibrillation to be endocytosed and transported by the neuron. These data suggest that the protein that accumulates in a specific disease is initially misfolded and that this misfolding contaminates normal protein in a prion-like manner – in some cases through the neuronal connections.

Tau-based therapeutics for alzheimer's disease and related tauopathies

Neurofibrillary pathology composed of the microtubule associated protein tau is a characteristic feature of Alzheimer's Disease as well as multiple rare tauopathies such as FTLD-tau and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. In each case, the density and distribution of the tau lesions correlates with the extent of neuronal loss and with the clinical progression of the disorder. Moreover multiple mutations in the tau (MAPT) gene have been shown to cause FTD linked to chromosome 17 establishing that tau dysfunction is sufficient to cause neurodegeneration. These mutations impact tau in different ways but significantly all are predicted to enhance tau aggregation suggesting that protein misfolding is a critical component of the neurodegenerative cascade. As a result of these findings, considerable research effort has focused on determining the mechanism of neurofibrillary degeneration and on identifying potential therapies for the treatment of tauopathy. Kinase inhibitors that have been postulated to block tau hyperphosphorylation and toxicity, aggregation inhibitors designed to prevent the formation of filamentous inclusions, and various approaches to enhance the clearance of pathological tau have been proposed and have undergone varying degrees of preclinical development. More recently, therapeutic antibodies designed to block the transmission and spreading of tau pathology have also received considerable attention. However despite the significance of tau and the high level of research activity, only a handful of potential small molecule drugs have progressed into early clinical trials and to date none of these have produced robust evidence of clinical efficacy. Several issues explain this relative lack of success, in particular there remains no consensus on the pathogenic mechanism that underlies tau-based neurodegeneration and in addition there is currently a lack of validated, tractable targets for which translatable biomarkers exist to enable clinical development. Despite this there remains grounds for considerable optimism with the recognition that tau likely spreads through the brain in a prion-like manner and the development of the first tau PET imaging agents providing new opportunities for drug discovery. This presentation will therefore review the current state of tau therapeutic development and will discuss progress towards translating preclinical findings into effective treatments for patients with tauopathy.

Brain homogenates from human tauopathies induce tau inclusions in mouse brain

Filamentous inclusions made of hyperphosphorylated tau are characteristic of numerous human neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, tangle-only dementia, Pick disease, argyrophilic grain disease (AGD), progressive supranuclear palsy, and corticobasal degeneration. In Alzheimer's disease and AGD, it has been shown that filamentous tau appears to spread in a stereotypic manner as the disease progresses. We previously demonstrated that the injection of brain extracts from human mutant P301S tau-expressing transgenic mice into the brains of mice transgenic for wild-type human tau (line ALZ17) resulted in the assembly of wild-type human tau into filaments and the spreading of tau inclusions from the injection sites to anatomically connected brain regions. Here we injected brain extracts from humans who had died with various tauopathies into the hippocampus and cerebral cortex of ALZ17 mice. Argyrophilic tau inclusions formed in all cases and following the injection of the corresponding brain extracts, we recapitulated the hallmark lesions of AGD, PSP and CBD. Similar inclusions also formed after intracerebral injection of brain homogenates from human tauopathies into nontransgenic mice. Moreover, the induced formation of tau aggregates could be propagated between mouse brains. These findings suggest that once tau aggregates have formed in discrete brain areas, they become self-propagating and spread in a prion-like manner.

In Vivo Spreading of Tau Pathology

In Vivo Spreading of Tau Pathology

The AAA-ATPase VPS4 Regulates Extracellular Secretion and Lysosomal Targeting of α-Synuclein

Many neurodegenerative diseases share a common pathological feature: the deposition of amyloid-like fibrils composed of misfolded proteins. Emerging evidence suggests that these proteins may spread from cell-to-cell and encourage the propagation of neurodegeneration in a prion-like manner. Here, we demonstrated that α-synuclein (αSYN), a principal culprit for Lewy pathology in Parkinson's disease (PD), was present in endosomal compartments and detectably secreted into the extracellular milieu. Unlike prion protein, extracellular αSYN was mainly recovered in the supernatant fraction rather than in exosome-containing pellets from the neuronal culture medium and cerebrospinal fluid. Surprisingly, impaired biogenesis of multivesicular body (MVB), an organelle from which exosomes are derived, by dominant-negative mutant vacuolar protein sorting 4 (VPS4) not only interfered with lysosomal targeting of αSYN but facilitated αSYN secretion. The hypersecretion of αSYN in VPS4-defective cells was efficiently restored by the functional disruption of recycling endosome regulator Rab11a. Furthermore, both brainstem and cortical Lewy bodies in PD were found to be immunoreactive for VPS4. Thus, VPS4, a master regulator of MVB sorting, may serve as a determinant of lysosomal targeting or extracellular secretion of αSYN and thereby contribute to the intercellular propagation of Lewy pathology in PD.

Prion-like propagation of mutant superoxide dismutase-1 misfolding in neuronal cells

Deposition of proteins of aberrant conformation is the hallmark of many neurodegenerative diseases. Misfolding of the normally globular mutant superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD1) is a central, early, but poorly understood event in the pathogenic cascade leading to familial forms of ALS. Here we report that aggregates composed of an ALS-causing SOD1 mutant penetrate inside cells by macropinocytosis and rapidly exit the macropinocytic compartment to nucleate aggregation of the cytosolic, otherwise soluble, mutant SOD1 protein. Once initiated, mutant SOD1 aggregation is self-perpetuating. Mutant SOD1 aggregates transfer from cell to cell with remarkable efficiency, a process that does not require contacts between cells but depends on the extracellular release of aggregates. This study reveals that SOD1 aggregates, propagate in a prion-like manner in neuronal cells and sheds light on the mechanisms underlying aggregate uptake and cell-to-cell transfer.

The Changing Face of Glucagon Fibrillation: Structural Polymorphism and Conformational Imprinting

We have established a time-resolved fluorescence assay to study fibrillation of the 29 residue peptide hormone glucagon under a variety of different conditions in a high-throughput format. Fibrils formed at pH 2.5 differ in fibrillation kinetics, morphology, thioflavin T staining and FTIR/CD spectra depending on salts, glucagon concentration and fibrillation temperature. Apparent fibrillar stability correlates with spectral and kinetic properties; generally, fibrils formed under conditions favourable for rapid fibrillation (ambient temperatures, high glucagon concentration or high salt concentration) appear less thermostable than those formed under more challenging conditions (high temperatures, low glucagon or low salt concentrations). Properties of preformed fibrils used for seeding are inherited in a prion-like manner. Thus, we conclude that the structure of fibrils formed by glucagon is not the result of the global energy minimization, but rather kinetically controlled by solvent conditions and seed-imprinting. Fibrillar polymorphism, which is being reported for an increasing number of proteins, probably reflects that fibrils have not been under evolutionary constraints to retain a single active conformation. Our results highlight the complexity of the fibrillation mechanism of glucagon, since even subtle changes in fibrillation conditions can alter the type of fibrils formed, or result in formation of mixtures of several types of fibrils.

Le pédiatre libéral prescrit-il des médicaments ?

α-Synuclein (α-Syn) has been extensively studied for its structural and biophysical properties owing to its pathophysiological role in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites are the pathological hallmarks of PD and contain α-Syn aggregates as their major component. It was therefore hypothesized that α-Syn aggregation is actively associated with PD pathogenesis. The central role of α-Syn aggregation in PD is further supported by the identification of point mutations in α-Syn protein associated with rare familial forms of PD. However, the correlation between aggregation propensities of α-Syn mutants and their association with PD phenotype is not straightforward. Recent evidence suggested that oligomers, formed during the initial stages of aggregation, are the potent neurotoxic species causing cell death in PD. However, the heterogeneous and unstable nature of these oligomers limit their detailed characterization. α-Syn fibrils, on the contrary, are shown to be the infectious agents and propagate in a prion-like manner. Although α-Syn is an intrinsically disordered protein, it exhibits remarkable conformational plasticity by adopting a range of structural conformations under different environmental conditions. In this review, we focus on the structural and functional aspects of α-Syn and role of potential factors that may contribute to the underlying mechanism of synucleinopathies. This information will help to identify novel targets and develop specific therapeutic strategies to combat Parkinson’s and other protein aggregation related neurodegenerative diseases.