What Is the Evidence that Parkinson’s Disease Is a Prion Disorder, Which Originates in the Gut?

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder resulting from degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc). PD is characterized by motor dysfunctions as well as gastrointestinal symptoms and mental impairment. The pathological hallmark of PD is an accumulation of misfolded α-synuclein aggregates within the brain. The etiology of PD and related synucleinopathy is poorly understood, but recently, the hypothesis that α-synuclein pathology spreads in a prion-like fashion originating in the gut has gained much scientific attention. A crucial clue was the appearance of constipation before the onset of motor symptoms, gut dysbiosis and synucleinopathy in PD patients. Another line of evidence, demonstrating accumulation of α-synuclein within the peripheral autonomic nervous system (PANS), including the enteric nervous system (ENS), and the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (DMV) support the concept that α-synuclein can spread from the ENS to the brain by the vagus nerve. The decreased risk of PD following truncal vagotomy supports this. The convincing evidence of the prion-like behavior of α-synuclein came from postmortem observations that pathological α-synuclein inclusions appeared in healthy grafted neurons. In this review, we summarize the available data from human subjects’ research and animal experiments, which seem to be the most suggestive for explaining the hypotheses.