Parkinson’s disease (PD) is recognized as the second most common neurodegenerative disorder and has affected approximately one million people in the United States alone. A large body of evidence has suggested that deposition of aggregated alpha-synuclein (α-Syn), a brain protein abundant near presynaptic termini, in intracellular protein inclusions (Lewy bodies) results in neuronal cell damage and ultimately contributes to the progression of PD. However, the exact mechanism is still unclear. One hypothesis is that α-Syn aggregates disrupt the cell membrane’s integrity, eventually leading to cell death. We used scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM) to monitor the morphological changes of SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells and observed dramatic disruption of the cell membrane after adding α-Syn aggregates to the culturing media. This work demonstrates that SICM can be applied as a new approach to studying the cytotoxicity of α-Syn aggregates.

中文翻译：

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使用扫描离子电导显微镜实时测定神经母细胞瘤细胞中聚集的α-突触核蛋白诱导的膜破坏

帕金森氏病（PD）被认为是第二大最常见的神经退行性疾病，仅在美国就影响了大约一百万人。大量证据表明，聚集的α-突触核蛋白（α-Syn）（一种突触前末端附近的大脑蛋白）在细胞内蛋白内含物（路易体）中的沉积会导致神经元细胞损伤，并最终促进PD的发展。但是，确切的机制仍不清楚。一种假设是α-Syn聚集体破坏细胞膜的完整性，最终导致细胞死亡。我们使用扫描离子电导显微镜（SICM）来监测SH-SY5Y神经母细胞瘤细胞的形态变化，并在向培养基中添加α-Syn聚集体后观察到细胞膜的急剧破坏。