Congratulations to the Sharma lab for their recent work on alpha-synuclein pathogenesis recently published in Nature Communications!
In collaboration with the Burré lab, also at the Appel Institute, the team led by Dr. Manu Sharma found that pathogenic alpha-synuclein species accumulate within neuronal lysosomes and are released through SNARE-dependent lysosomal exocytosis, providing a novel mechanism by which pathogenic alpha-synuclein transmit from neuron-to-neuron and spread. The authors established two models: a new mouse model to immunoisolate neuronal lysosomes and a long-term culture model where neurons produce alpha-synuclein aggregates. Their findings suggest that lysosomal exocytosis may be an important mechanism for pathological cell-to-cell transmission, and a potential therapeutic target. Read the full paper here.