Synuclein alpha (SNCA) is a mysterious protein. It’s present in healthy cells but we don’t know what it does there. It is notorious for its involvement in age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Twenty-seven years ago, researchers first associated SNCA with Parkinson’s disease. People with this disease lose neurons that communicate with each other using dopamine as a neurotransmitter in a part of their brains.
These dopaminergic neurons have been found to contain aggregated masses of proteins called Lewy bodies. Most of these proteins are SNCA.
Since then, researchers have reported SNCA in similar aggregates in the brains of people with other neurodegenerative diseases as well. But its presence is most prominent in brains with Parkinson’s.
