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α-Synucleinopathy is an entity of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and multiple system atrophy (MSA), that involves accumulation of α-synuclein in the brain. PINK1 (PTEN induced kinase 1) is a novel gene recently identified as causative in autosomal recessive early onset parkinsonism (PARK6). In the present study, we examined the localisation of PINK1 in the brains of patients with α-synucleinopathy and found PINK1 in glial cytoplasmic inclusions (GCIs) in MSA, as well as in Lewy bodies (LBs) in PD and DLB. These findings imply that PINK1 may be involved in the formation of LBs and GCIs, suggesting that PINK1 is one of the major pathological proteins in α-synucleinopathy.
Methods
The cDNA of PINK1, corresponding to 112–520 amino acids of the protein, was subcloned in a vector pET30(a) with a His tag. Anti-PINK1 antibody was generated against recombinant His tagged PINK1 by immunising a rabbit. The obtained antibody was affinity purified. A postmortem brain sample from a normal patient was homogenised, subjected to sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and transferred to a membrane. After blocking in Tris buffered saline with 5% dry milk, the membrane was incubated with anti-PINK1 antibody (1:1000). The membrane was then incubated with a secondary antibody (1:2500; Amersham, Buckinghamshire, UK), and visualised with an enhanced chemiluminescent substrate (Pierce, Rockford, Illinois, USA). Immunohistochemical analysis was carried out with paraffin embedded midbrain sections from patients with sporadic PD, …
Footnotes
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Competing interests: None.