Cited by 925Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and TreatmentsAlzheimer's disease research and treatmentsNuclear Receptors and Signaling

Direct evidence of Parkinson pathology spread from the gastrointestinal tract to the brain in rats

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Holmqvist, Staffan, Chutna, Oldriska, Bousset, Luc, Aldrin-Kirk, Patrick, Li, Wen, Björklund, Tomas, Wang, Zhan-You, Roybon, Laurent +2 more·2014·Acta Neuropathologica

Abstract

The cellular hallmarks of Parkinson's disease (PD) are the loss of nigral dopaminergic neurons and the formation of α-synuclein-enriched Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites in the remaining neurons. Based on the topographic distribution of Lewy bodies established after autopsy of brains from PD patients, Braak and coworkers hypothesized that Lewy pathology primes in the enteric nervous system and spreads to the brain, suggesting an active retrograde transport of α-synuclein (the key protein component in Lewy bodies), via the vagal nerve. This hypothesis, however, has not been tested experimentally thus far. Here, we use a human PD brain lysate containing different forms of α-synuclein (monomeric, oligomeric and fibrillar), and recombinant α-synuclein in an in vivo animal model to test this hypothesis. We demonstrate that α-synuclein present in the human PD brain lysate and distinct recombinant α-synuclein forms are transported via the vagal nerve and reach the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus in the brainstem in a time-dependent manner after injection into the intestinal wall. Using live cell imaging in a differentiated neuroblastoma cell line, we determine that both slow and fast components of axonal transport are involved in the transport of aggregated α-synuclein. In conclusion, we here provide the first experimental evidence that different α-synuclein forms can propagate from the gut to the brain, and that microtubule-associated transport is involved in the translocation of aggregated α-synuclein in neurons.

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Crossref · 10.1007/s00401-014-1343-6

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  • Cellular and animal studies have provided a model for prion-like spread of α-synuclein from the gut to the brain via the enteric nervous system, chiefly through the vagus nerve.

    “Third, cellular and animal studies have provided a model for prion-like spread of α-synuclein from the gut to the brain via the enteric nervous system, chiefly through the vagus nerve [15–17].”
  • Involvement of the vagal nerve in the propagation of α-synuclein from the gut to the brain was demonstrated by Holmqvist et al.

    “Involvement of the vagal nerve in the propagation of α-synuclein from the gut to the brain was demonstrated by Holmqvist et al. [399].”
  • Alpha-synuclein can be retrogradely transported from the intestinal wall to the brain in rats.

    “In accordance with this hypothesis it has been shown that alphasynuclein can be retrogradely transported from the intestinal wall to the brain in rats (Holmqvist et al., 2014).”

    From The Gut-Brain Axis in Parkinson’s Disease: Possibilities for Food-Based Therapies (2017) · cites this paper as Holmqvist et al., 2014

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Authors
Holmqvist, S., Chutna, O., Bousset, L., Aldrin-Kirk, P., Li, W., Björklund, T., Wang, Z.-Y., Roybon, L., Melki, R., & Li, J.-Y.
Affiliations
  • Lund University (SE)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
  • Northeastern University (CN)
Venue
Acta Neuropathologica
Published
2014-10-09
Volume
128
Issue
6
Pages
805-820
ISSN
  • 0001-6322 (ISSN-L)
  • 1432-0533
OpenAlex
W1995281235
Cited by
925
References
51
Citations by year
2026: 47 · 2025: 67 · 2024: 73 · 2023: 67 · 2022: 110 · 2021: 132 · 2020: 102 · 2019: 107 · 2018: 75 · 2017: 59 · 2016: 43 · 2015: 38 · 2014: 3
FWCI
30.94
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Acta Neuropathologica (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-11-BSV8-0021)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and Treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Nuclear Receptors and Signaling
Keywords
Parkinson's disease, alpha-synuclein, Lewy bodies, gut-brain axis, vagus nerve, retrograde transport, enteric nervous system, dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus, axonal transport, alpha-synuclein aggregation, rat model
MeSH terms
Animals, Axonal Transport, Brain, Disease Models, Animal, Humans, Parkinson Disease, Recombinant Proteins, Vagus Nerve, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Disease Progression, Gastrointestinal Tract, Cell Line, Tumor, alpha-Synuclein

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