α-Synuclein (α-syn) is often mutated in neurological diseases, including Parkinson’s disease (PD), where it localizes to the Lewy bodies. Su, Auluck, Outeiro and colleagues find that yeast overexpressing α-syn alter their expression of mitochondrial-associated genes and exhibit abnormal mitochondrial function. In a chemical screen they identified compounds that reversed the adverse effects of α-syn on mitochondrial function, and ER-to-Golgi trafficking, in yeast and primary neurons from a rat model of PD.
2010
