The Herbicide Paraquat Causes Up-regulation and Aggregation of α-Synuclein in Mice

Alpha-Synuclein-containing aggregates represent a feature of a variety of neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's disease (PD). However, mechanisms that promote intraneuronal alpha-synuclein assembly remain poorly understood. Because pesticides, particularly the herbicide paraquat, have been suggested to play a role as PD risk factors, the hypothesis that interactions between alpha-synuclein and these environmental agents may contribute to aggregate formation was tested in this study. Paraquat markedly accelerated the in vitro rate of alpha-synuclein fibril formation in a dose-dependent fashion. When mice were exposed to the herbicide, brain levels of alpha-synuclein were significantly increased.…