Recapitulating Parkinson’s pathology in human iPSC dopaminergic neurons reveals new mechanistic insights into Lewy body formation and heterogeneity

The accumulation of alpha-synuclein (aSyn) into intraneuronal inclusions of heterogeneous morphology, known as Lewy bodies (LB), is one of the defining diagnostic features of Parkinson’s disease (PD); yet, our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning their formation and heterogeneity remains incomplete. Here, we present a human isogenic iPSC-derived dopaminergic neuron (iDA) model that faithfully recapitulates the diverse biochemical, morphological, and ultrastructural features of LB neuropathology in PD. Unlike other iDA seeding models, our model does not rely on aSyn overexpression, mutations, or genetic engineering, making it a more physiologically relevant system for studying PD. We demonstrate that the iDA model accurately reproduces the temporal relationships between neuritic and cell-body aSyn pathology, recapitulating the full biochemical spectrum, post-translational modifications (PTM), and morphological diversity of aSyn aggregates found in human PD tissue. Moreover, our work provides critical insight into how different pathways to aSyn fibrillization and the complex interaction between aSyn fibrils and membranous organelles influence the morphological diversity of LB-like inclusions. This model represents a versatile platform for investigating the mechanisms of pathology formation, maturation, and neuronal dysfunction, as well as supporting the development of diagnostics that capture the diversity of aSyn pathology in PD and related synucleinopathies.