Frontiers in Neuroscience (Sep 2023)

Liquid-liquid phase separation regulates alpha-synuclein aggregate and mitophagy in Parkinson’s disease

  • Kaiying Hou,
  • Tingting Liu,
  • Jingwen Li,
  • Meiyan Xian,
  • Lin Sun,
  • Jianshe Wei

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2023.1250532
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17

Abstract

Read online

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the world, and alpha-synuclein (α-syn) abnormal aggregate and mitochondrial dysfunction play a crucial role in its pathological development. Recent studies have revealed that proteins can form condensates through liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS), and LLPS has been found to be widely present in α-syn aberrant aggregate and mitophagy-related protein physiological processes. This review summarizes the occurrence of α-syn LLPS and its influencing factors, introduces the production and transformation of the related protein LLPS during PINK1-Parkin-mediated mitophagy, hoping to provide new ideas and methods for the study of PD pathology.

Keywords