TorsinA accumulation in Lewy bodies in sporadic Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegnerative disorder that is pathologica lly characterized by the presence of Lewy bodies in the brain. We show that Lewy bodies in PD are strongly immunoreactive for torsinA, the protein pro duct of the DYT1 gene, which is associated with primary generalized dystoni a. In the substantia nigra, torsinA immunoreactivity is localized to the pe riphery of Lewy bodies, whereas, in cortical Lewy bodies it is uniformly di stributed. The significance of this finding is unknown, but may implicate t orsinA in neuronal dysfunction that occurs in PD as well as in primary dyst onia. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.