Michel Hamon, Jeremie Vitte, Charles Cohen-Salmon, Philipp J. Kahle, Fabien Cornilleau, Margot Fournier, Hilal A. Lashuel, Naïma Hanoun, René Duchateau, Sabine Traver, Katerina E. Paleologou, Cécile Goujet-Zalc, Fernando Perez-Diaz, Chantal Joubert, Françoise Saurini, Olga Corti, Alexis Brice, Christian Haass, Jérôme Garrigue, Hector Ardila-Osorio, Charles Duyckaerts, Jean-Philippe Dullin, Dominique Langui, Neurogenetique Moleculaire, Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne (UEVE)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Mécanismes adaptatifs : des organismes aux communautés (MAOAC), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut de médecine moléculaire de Rangueil (I2MR), Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)- Institut Fédératif de Recherche Bio-médicale Institution (IFR150)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Vulnérabilité Adaptation et Psychopathologie (VAP), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), CHU Pitié-Salpêtrière [AP-HP], Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) (AP-HP)-Sorbonne Université (SU), Centre de Recherche de l'Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière (CRICM), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Neurologie et thérapeutique expérimentale, Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-IFR70-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-IFR150-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Neuropsychopharmacologie, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC), Service de Génétique Cytogénétique et Embryologie [CHU Pitié-Salpêtrière], Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) (AP-HP)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) (AP-HP)-Sorbonne Université (SU), and Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-IFR70-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)
International audience; In synucleinopathies, including Parkinson's disease, partially ubiquitylated alpha-synuclein species phosphorylated on serine 129 (P(S129)-alpha-synuclein) accumulate abnormally. Parkin, an ubiquitin-protein ligase that is dysfunctional in autosomal recessive parkinsonism, protects against alpha-synuclein-mediated toxicity in various models.We analyzed the effects of Parkin deficiency in a mouse model of synucleinopathy to explore the possibility that Parkin and alpha-synuclein act in the same biochemical pathway. Whether or not Parkin was present, these mice developed an age-dependent neurodegenerative disorder preceded by a progressive decline in performance in tasks predictive of sensorimotor dysfunction. The symptoms were accompanied by the deposition of P(S129)-alpha-synuclein but not P(S87)-alpha-synuclein in neuronal cell bodies and neuritic processes throughout the brainstem and the spinal cord; activation of caspase 9 was observed in 5% of the P(S129)-alpha-synuclein-positive neurons. As in Lewy bodies, ubiquitin-immunoreactivity, albeit less abundant, was invariably co-localized with P(S129)-alpha-synuclein. During late disease stages, the disease-specific neuropathological features revealed by ubiquitin- and P(S129)-alpha-synuclein-specific antibodies were similar in mice with or without Parkin. However, the proportion of P(S129)-alpha-synuclein-immunoreactive neuronal cell bodies and neurites co-stained for ubiquitin was lower in the absence than in the presence of Parkin, suggesting less advanced synucleinopathy. Moreover, sensorimotor impairment and manifestation of the neurodegenerative phenotype due to overproduction of human alpha-synuclein were significantly delayed in Parkin-deficient mice.These findings raise the possibility that effective compensatory mechanisms modulate the phenotypic expression of disease in parkin-related parkinsonism.