FIGURE 7.

Model of α-Syn aggregation-induced impairment of MT-based transport machinery. As early pathological events in the course of α-Syn aggregation, α-Syn oligomers disrupt MT-kinesin function, and the presence of α-Syn seeds and oligomers critically influences MT network integrity. Together with other pathologic effects induced by α-Syn oligomers, such as membrane leakage, cytoskeleton changes might have a large spectrum of critical consequences that would together contribute to neurite degeneration, collapsed neuronal network, and finally to neuronal death. Fibrillar aggregates of α-Syn do not critically interfere with the axonal transport machinery and might represent “inert” α-Syn aggregate species.