[HT-01] α-Synuclein and beyond: Find out the true culprit causing neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease!

[HT-01-5] Distinct aggregation patterns of alpha-synuclein in PD and MSA: Is it all about strains?

Wassilios Meissner^1,2,3 (1.Université de Bordeaux, Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives, France, 2.Service de Neurologie, CHU Bordeaux, France, 3.Dept. Medicine, University of Otago, and New Zealand Brain Research Institute, New Zealand)

α-Synuclein is a primary component of Lewy bodies, and mutations / overexpression of it cause Parkinson’s disease (PD). Besides, Braak and colleagues identified Lewy pathologies, namely α-synuclein deposition, in various regions of human brains, and demonstrated the temporal sequence of α-synuclein pathologies that emerge in the brains of PD. However, the relationship between α-synuclein deposition and neuronal dysfunction / neuronal death and underlying mechanisms connecting them are still unclear. Is α-synuclein a true culprit of neurodegeneration in PD? If so, what are the precise molecular mechanisms involved with the neurotoxicity of α-synuclein? What other factors contribute to neurodegeneration in PD? Now it is high time that we should know the details molecular mechanisms involved with neurodegeneration in PD. Does α-Synuclein itself cause neurodegeneration or need other factors, namely α-synuclein and beyond?

Prof. Meissner is director of the Parkinson’s disease (PD) Expert Centre Bordeaux and co-chair of the French Reference Centre for multiple system atrophy (MSA). He received his medical degree in 1997 from Humboldt University Berlin (Germany) and his Board Certification in Neurology in 2005 after completing his residency at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin and the University Hospital Bordeaux. In 2005, he was awarded a PhD in Neuroscience at the University Bordeaux. He was appointed Professor of Neurology at the University Bordeaux in 2012. Prof. Meissner is the current chair of the International Education Committee of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society (MDS). His research interests focus on biological and clinical markers of disease progression in PD and MSA, as well as the development of new preclinical models and treatments for these disorders in a translational approach. Within his current research activities, Prof. Meissner chairs the working group of the MDS-sponsored MSA Study Group dedicated to the development of fluid biomarkers, has recently completed a phase 1 study in MSA with two innovative vaccines directed against alpha-synuclein (http://sympath-project.eu) and coordinates the European ARTEMIS consortium that evaluates the efficacy of strategies targeting alpha-synuclein in preclinical models of MSA (http://www.erare.eu/financed-projects/artemis).