Short Communications
Widespread Nitration of Pathological Inclusions in Neurodegenerative Synucleinopathies

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0002-9440(10)64781-5Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open archive

Reactive nitrogen species may play a mechanistic role in neurodegenerative diseases by posttranslationally altering normal brain proteins. In support of this hypothesis, we demonstrate that an anti-3-nitrotyrosine polyclonal antibody stains all of the major hallmark lesions of synucleinopathies including Lewy bodies, Lewy neurites and neuraxonal spheroids in dementia with Lewy bodies, the Lewy body variant of Alzheimer's disease, and neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation type 1, as well as glial and neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions in multiple system atrophy. This antibody predominantly recognized nitrated α-synuclein when compared to other in vitro nitrated constituents of these pathological lesions, such as neurofilament subunits and microtubules. Collectively, these findings imply that α-synuclein is nitrated in pathological lesions. The widespread presence of nitrated α-synuclein in diverse intracellular inclusions suggests that oxidation/nitration is involved in the onset and/or progression of neurodegenerative diseases.

Cited by (0)

Supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and by a Pioneer Award from the Alzheimer's Association. B. I. G. is the recipient of a fellowship from the Human Frontier Science Program Organization.