Grant: Project Grant

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease worldwide and the most common human movement disorder, affecting over 100,000 Canadians. Characterized by a progressive decline in voluntary movement, motor function eventually dissipates, and patients lose the ability to move. To date, no effective treatment is capable of halting or reversing disease pathology. As the disease progresses, evidence suggests that pathology spreads through anatomically linked regions of the brain. The protein alpha-synuclein accumulates in the brain of PD patients and is the primary component of Lewy Bodies, which are a hallmark of the disease. For disease to spread, alpha-synuclein must move between cells, changing shape as it does. This change in structure draws more alpha-synuclein into misshapen aggregates. We believe this shape differs slightly in different people with PD and dictates why symptoms vary so significantly between PD patients. The current project will focus on validating ways to visualize different aggregate structures, determine whether these aggregate structures cluster to people with the same disease presentation, and establish that different structural strains bring about different disease subtypes requiring different therapeutic approaches.