Issue Cover (July 2019)

Front cover:The effects of oligomeric species of α‐synuclein (αSO), neurotoxins of Parkinson's disease (PD), on astrocytes have not been directly addressed. Here, by using an early model of PD, we showed that αSO induced astrocyte reactivity and enhanced the synaptogenic capacity of human and murine astrocytes by increasing the levels of tran sforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF‐β1). Our study describes a new neuroprotective role of astrocytes against the neurotoxicity induced by αSO and sheds light on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of synaptic changes in the early stages of PD.Image content: Confocal microscopy of cultured mesencephalic astrocytes immunolabeled for GFAP (red immunofluorescent staining) and human alpha synuclein, α‐Syn, (green immunofluorescent staining). Nuclei are shown in blue (Dapi signal). α‐Syn immunolabeling is observed extracellularly, on astrocyte's surface, and intracellularly, on astrocyte's cytoplasm.Read the full article‘α‐synuclein oligomers enhance astrocyte‐induced synapse formation through TGF‐β1 signaling in a Parkinson's disease model’ by L. P. Diniz, I. Matias, A. P. B. Araujo, M. N. Garcia, F. G. Q. Barros ‐Argão, S. V. Alves‐Leon, J. M. de Souza, D. Foguel, C. Pinto Figuiredo, C. Braga, L. Ramão, F. C. A. Gomes (J. Neurochem. 2019, vol. 150 (2), pp. 138 –157) on doi:10.1111/jnc.14710
Source: Journal of Neurochemistry - Category: Neuroscience Tags: Issue Cover Source Type: research