%0 Journal Article %T α-Synuclein conformational strains spread, seed and target neuronal cells differentially after injection into the olfactory bulb %V 7 %N 1 %P 221 %U https://doi.org/10.1186/s40478-019-0859-3 %X Alpha-synuclein inclusions, the hallmarks of synucleinopathies, are suggested to spread along neuronal connections in a stereotypical pattern in the brains of patients. Ample evidence now supports that pathological forms of alpha-synuclein propagate in cell culture models and in vivo in a prion-like manner. However, it is still not known why the same pathological protein targets different cell populations, propagates with different kinetics and leads to a variety of diseases (synucleinopathies) with distinct clinical features. The aggregation of the protein alpha-synuclein yields different conformational polymorphs called strains. These strains exhibit distinct biochemical, physical and structural features they are able to imprint to newly recruited alpha-synuclein. This had led to the view that the clinical heterogeneity observed in synucleinopathies might be due to distinct pathological alpha-synuclein strains. %J Acta Neuropathologica Communications %A Rey, Nolwen L. %A Bousset, Luc %A George, Sonia %A Madaj, Zachary %A Meyerdirk, Lindsay %A Schulz, Emily %A Steiner, Jennifer A. %A Melki, Ronald %A Brundin, Patrik %D December 30, 2019 %K peer-reviewed