Adaptation of α-synuclein fibrils following multiple system atrophy transmission to mice

Synucleinopathies are a group of neurodegenerative diseases characterized by the presence of misfolded α-synuclein inclusions which cause progressive disease by spreading throughout the brain in a prion-like manner. Throughout the neurodegenerative disease field, the ability of a single protein to give rise to multiple distinct clinical disorders is explained by the strain hypothesis, or the idea that the misfolded protein conformation determines the resulting disease. This was initially shown using transmission studies in cell lines and mouse models; more recently cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) validated this idea by identifying distinct α-synuclein filament folds in brain tissues from patients with Parkinson’s disease, multiple system atrophy (MSA), and juvenile-onset synucleinopathy. However, very little is known about the α-synuclein filament structures that form in animal models of these disorders, and thus their relevance to human disease and suitability as models for therapeutic development remains a question. Here we report the first atomic resolution cryo-EM structures of α-synuclein fibrils from an MSA patient sample before and after transmission to a transgenic mouse model of disease. Our findings indicate that while distinct adaptations occur during fibril replication in the mouse host, key structural facets are maintained, validating the merits of this transmission model for supporting preclinical research on MSA.