alpha-Synuclein, a presynaptic nerve terminal protein, may be an important
component of Lewy bodies in Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies,
and other neurodegenerative diseases. Additionally, recent genetic studies
based on linkage analysis and cosegregation of A53T and A30P missense muta
tions demonstrated that the alpha-synuclein gene may be responsible for the
development of at least some cases of familial Parkinson's disease. Despit
e intense interest in the members of the synuclein family, their function(s
) and exact role in the diseases remained unknown. Here we describe a new m
ember of the synuclein family, which we term synoretin, and show that it is
expressed in different retinal cells, as well as in the brain, and it may
affect the regulation of signal transduction through activation of the Elk1
pathway.