alpha-Synuclein at the synaptic gate

Abstract

Only doubling or tripling alpha-synuclein expression significantly increases the risk of developing Parkinson's disease. In this issue of Neuron, Nemani et al. show that this modest overexpression of alpha-synuclein does not lead to obvious toxicity in the near term, but impairs glutamate and dopamine release, potentially leading to broad network dysfunction and eventual pathology.