Exploring α-synuclein Interaction Partners and their Potential Clinical Implications for Parkinson’s Disease

Alpha-synuclein aggregates are strongly associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD), a degenerative neurological disorder characterized by a progressive loss in motor functions. Our study aimed to unravel the potential interaction partners of α-synuclein for exploring the synucleinpathy of PD related to α-synuclein aggregates. α-synuclein was expressed in E.coli and purified by affinity chromatography followed by isolation and identification of its interaction partners using pulldown assay coupled with LC–MS/MS. The impacts of the identified interaction partners on PD were evaluated based on GSE205450 dataset. Consequently, 157 proteins were identified by the criteria of unique peptide = 5. Four proteins including ACO2, ANT1, ATP5F1B and CKB were confirmed using immunostaining coupled with α-synuclein-pulldown assay. Transcriptomics assay showed that the dominant biological processes influenced by α-synuclein interaction partners with differential expression were energy metabolism. Together with GSE205450, Western blot assay showed that α-synuclein interaction partners involved in energy metabolism were down-regulated in PD patients and the MPTP-lesioned mice. ROC curves indicated their clinical implications as diagnostic indices of PD. Using ANT1 as an example, we found that protein aggregates formed by ANT1 and α-synuclein predominantly solely appeared in the cells and mice with PD-like variations. Thereby, low levels of the interaction partners of α-synuclein associated with energy metabolism were associated with PD pathogenesis via forming protein aggregates. This study provides an insight into developing innovative targets on PD based on synucleinpathy.