Parkinson's disease (PD) is a very common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the accumulation of α-synuclein (α-syn) into Lewy body (LB) inclusions and the loss of neuronmelanin (NM) containing dopamine (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra (SN). Pathological α-syn and NM are two prominent hallmarks in this selective and progressive neurodegenerative disease. Pathological α-syn can indu...

The concept of syn re chains has been proposed by Abeles as a reason able biophysical model for cortical long time correlations and replicating spike patterns in multi unit recordings Some recent computational modelling ap proaches extend the model into a functional direction proposing that the synchronization of syn re chains may help to solve the binding problem of cortical information proces...

Following the recent reclassification of the Palaeotropic xyleborine genera (Hulcr and Cognato in press), additional species are transferred to correct genera or synonymized based on analysis of their morphological characters. The following species are given new combinations: Debus amphicranoides (Hagedorn), comb. n., Debus birmanus (Eggers, 1930), comb. n., Debus dolosus (Blandford, 1896), com...

A cellular feature of Parkinson's disease is cytosolic accumulation and amyloid formation of α-synuclein (α-syn), implicating a misregulation or impairment of protein degradation pathways involving the proteasome and lysosome. Within lysosomes, cathepsin D (CtsD), an aspartyl protease, is suggested to be the main protease for α-syn clearance; however, the protease alone only generates amyloidog...

Human studies and preclinical models of Parkinson's disease implicate the involvement of both the innate and adaptive immune systems in disease progression. Further, pro-inflammatory markers are highly enriched near neurons containing pathological forms of alpha synuclein (α-syn), and α-syn overexpression recapitulates neuroinflammatory changes in models of Parkinson's disease. These data sugge...

Alpha-synuclein (alpha-syn) appears to normally regulate neurotransmitter release, possibly via calcium-dependent binding and dissociation from lipid domains on secretory vesicles. The pathogenic effects of alpha-syn leading to Parkinson's disease (PD) appear to result from alternate toxic effects on lipid membrane. A variety of findings indicate that overexpression of wild-type alpha-syn, path...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by the progressive appearance of intraneuronal Lewy aggregates, which are primarily composed of misfolded α-synuclein (α-syn). The aggregates are believed to propagate via neural pathways following a stereotypical pattern, starting in the olfactory bulb (OB) and gut. We hypothesized that injection of fibrillar α-syn into the OB of wild-type mice would r...

In chloroform solution, the syn/anti rotamer ratios for N-(2-pyridyl)carbamates, 3, and N-phenylcarbamates, 4, are close to 0.05. Addition of the double hydrogen bonding acetic acid moderately stabilizes the syn rotamer of 4, but has no measurable effect on the syn/anti ratio for 3. Conversely, the hydrogen bond donor-acceptor-donor triad in 2,6-bis(octylamido)pyridine, 1, strongly stabilizes t...

A review of species of the genus Neopsocopsis Badonnel, 1936 is presented. Four species are redescribed, viz. Neopsocopsis hirticornis (Reuter, 1893), Neopsocopsis quinquedentata (Li & Yang, 1988), Neopsocopsis profunda (Li, 1995), and Neopsocopsis flavida (Li, 1989), as well as the description of one new species, Neopsocopsis convexasp. n. Seven new synonymies are proposed as follows: Pentabla...

OBJECTIVE While evidence for oxidative injury is frequently detected in brains of humans affected by Parkinson's disease (PD) and in relevant animal models, there is uncertainty regarding its cause. We tested the potential role of catalase in the oxidative injury that characterizes PD. METHODS Utilizing brains of A53T α-Syn and ntg mice, and cultured cells, we analyzed catalase activity and e...