Determination of alpha-synuclein concentration in human plasma using ELISA

The nerve cell protein alpha-synuclein is important in Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, and its expression levels are directly linked to development of the diseases. Quantification of the plasma level of alpha-synuclein may therefore be important as a biomarker for disease susceptibility. We present a quantitative measurement of alpha-synuclein in the plasma of healthy control subjects in relation to their age using a novel enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The plasma concentration among the 44 blood donors displayed a median of 5.6 mu g/L (range 2.1-19.4 mg/L) with a narrow distribution (25 % and 75 % percentiles, 4.0 and 7.2 mg/L) and there was no correlation with age and gender. This narrow concentration range and the ease of measuring the quantitative ELISA support future investigations of plasma alpha-synuclein in relation to neurodegenerative diseases.