Selective neuronal vulnerability in Parkinson disease

Intracellular alpha-synuclein (alpha-syn)-rich protein aggregates called Lewy pathology (LP) and neuronal death are commonly found in the brains of patients with clinical Parkinson disease (cPD). It is widely believed that LP appears early in the disease and spreads in synaptically coupled brain networks, driving neuronal dysfunction and death. However, post-mortem analysis of human brains and connectome-mapping studies show that the pattern of LP in cPD is not consistent with this simple model, arguing that, if LP propagates in cPD, it must be gated by cell or region-autonomous mechanisms. Moreover, the correlation between LP and neuronal death is weak. In this Review, we briefly discuss the evidence for and against the spreading LP model, as well as evidence that cell-autonomous factors govern both a-syn pathology and neuronal death.