Developing Arginine As An Inhibitor For Α-Synuclein Aggregation: An Innovative Therapy To Combat Parkinson’s Disease

α-synucleinParkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder and its root cause is the aggregation of the protein α-synuclein, which leads to neural cell death. There exists no technique through which the aggregation process can be reversed. A large no. of epidemiological studies has shown increased risk of Parkinson’s in populations exposed to pesticides. I wish to investigate the role of arginine as an inhibitor in pesticide induced α-synuclein aggregation and develop this innovative therapy to combat Parkinson’s disease. Arginine, a natural, readily available amino acid has been reported as an aggregation suppressor and protein structure stabilizer. This non-toxic compound has been used to inhibit the progression of Parkinson’s disease. α-synuclein was expressed in E.coli cells and then purified. Gel electrophoresis was performed to confirm expression and purification of α-synuclein followed by the western blot analysis to detect and separate native protein. This was followed by incubation and aggregation of α-synuclein in the presence of rotenone (representative pesticide), arginine and rotenone+ arginine. Thioflavin T spectrofluorimetry was used to analyse the solutions. I discovered that arginine was able to arrest aggregation of α-synuclein in all stages. I plan to extend this study to monitor the effect of arginine addition at delayed time points of aggregation in a cell based system. This can be a promising therapeutic strategy to slow down aggregation of α-synuclein in this progressively neurodegenerative disorder. It is innovative, economically viable and easily available. It is a safer, preventive and prophylactic therapy and thus can be quite effective.