TY - JOUR TI - Assessment of α-synuclein secretion in mouse and human brain parenchyma AU - Emmanouilidou, E. AU - Elenis, D. AU - Papasilekas, T. AU - Stranjalis, G. AU - Gerozissis, K. AU - Ioannou, P.C. AU - Vekrellis, K. JO - PLOS ONE PY - 2011 VL - 6 TODO - 7 SP - null PB - SN - null TODO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0022225 TODO - alpha synuclein; alpha synuclein, adult; animal tissue; article; brain; controlled study; disease course; extracellular space; female; human; in vivo study; interstitial fluid; male; mouse; nonhuman; parenchyma; Parkinson disease; protein expression; protein function; protein secretion; traumatic brain injury; animal; corpus striatum; enzyme linked immunosorbent assay; extracellular fluid; in vitro study; metabolism; microdialysis; middle aged; transgenic mouse; Western blotting, Animalia; Mus musculus, Adult; alpha-Synuclein; Animals; Blotting, Western; Brain; Corpus Striatum; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Extracellular Fluid; Female; Humans; Male; Mice; Mice, Transgenic; Microdialysis; Middle Aged TODO - Genetic, biochemical, and animal model studies strongly suggest a central role for α-synuclein in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. α-synuclein lacks a signal peptide sequence and has thus been considered a cytosolic protein. Recent data has suggested that the protein may be released from cells via a non-classical secretory pathway and may therefore exert paracrine effects in the extracellular environment. However, proof that α-synuclein is actually secreted into the brain extracellular space in vivo has not been obtained. We developed a novel highly sensitive ELISA in conjugation with an in vivo microdialysis technique to measure α-synuclein in brain interstitial fluid. We show for the first time that α-synuclein is readily detected in the interstitial fluid of both α-synuclein transgenic mice and human patients with traumatic brain injury. Our data suggest that α-synuclein is physiologically secreted by neurons in vivo. This interstitial fluid pool of the protein may have a role in the propagation of synuclein pathology and progression of Parkinson's disease. © 2011 Emmanouilidou et al. ER -