Alpha-Synuclein Levels in Blood Plasma Decline with Healthy Aging

KOEHLER N; STRANSKY E; MEYER M; GAERTNER S; SHING M; SCHNAIDT M; CELEJ MS; JOVIN TM; LEYHE T; LASKE C; BATRA A; BUCHKREMER G; FALLGATTER A; WERNET D; RICHARTZ-SALZBURGER E

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2015

1932-6203

There is unequivocal evidence that alpha-synuclein plays a pivotal pathophysiological rolein neurodegenerative diseases, and in particular in synucleinopathies. These disorderspresent with a variable extent of cognitive impairment and alpha-synuclein is being exploredas a biomarker in CSF, blood serum and plasma. Considering key events of aging that includeproteostasis, alpha-synuclein may not only be useful as a marker for differential diagnosisbut also for aging per se. To explore this hypothesis, we developed a highly specificELISA to measure alpha-synuclein. In healthy males plasma alpha-synuclein levels correlatedstrongly with age, revealing much lower concentrations in older (avg. 58.1 years) comparedto younger (avg. 27.6 years) individuals. This difference between the age groups wasenhanced after acidification of the plasmas (p<0.0001), possibly reflecting a decrease ofalpha-synuclein-antibody complexes or chaperone activity in older individuals. Our resultssupport the concept that alpha-synuclein homeostasis may be impaired early on, possiblydue to disturbance of the proteostasis network, a key component of healthy aging. Thus,alpha-synuclein may be a novel biomarker of aging, a factor that should be consideredwhen analyzing its presence in biological specimens.