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 -Synuclein following Methamphetamine
Is It Good or Bad?
a Department of Human Morphology and Applied Biology, University of Pisa, I-56126 Pisa, Italy b Laboratory of Neurobiology of Movement Disorders I.R.C.C.S., I.N.M. Neuromed 86077 Pozzilli, Isernia, Italy
Key Words:  -synuclein • amphetamine derivatives • dopaminergic neuron • neurotoxicity
Address for correspondence: Francesco Fornai, M.D., Department of Human Morphology and Applied Biology, University of Pisa, Via Roma, 55, I-56126 Pisa, Italy. Voice: +39-50-2218611; fax: +39-50-2218606. e-mail: f.fornai{at}med.unipi.it
-Synuclein is a presynaptic protein involved in various degenerative disorders now defined as synucleinopathies. These include neurological diseases that share a few pathological features consisting of aggregates of both normal and altered -synuclein within specific neuronal populations and/or glial cells. The prototype of synucleinopathies is represented by Parkinson's disease (PD) in which -synuclein is identified as a constant component of neuronal pale eosinophilic inclusions: "the Lewy Bodies." In the present article, we discuss the potential significance of amphetamine-induced overexpression of -synuclein in light of clinical findings showing neurodegeneration following overexpression of -synuclein and recent experimental studies that measured increased expression of -synuclein following amphetamine derivatives.
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