Determination of α‐synuclein concentration in human plasma using ELISA

Abstract

The nerve cell protein α‐synuclein is important in Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, and its expression levels are directly linked to development of the diseases. Quantification of the plasma level of α‐synuclein may therefore be important as a biomarker for disease susceptibility. We present a quantitative measurement of α‐synuclein in the plasma of healthy control subjects in relation to their age using a novel enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The plasma concentration among the 44 blood donors displayed a median of 5.6 µg/L (range 2.1–19.4 µg/L) with a narrow distribution (25 % and 75 % percentiles, 4.0 and 7.2 µg/L) and there was no correlation with age and gender. This narrow concentration range and the ease of measuring the quantitative ELISA support future investigations of plasma α‐synuclein in relation to neurodegenerative diseases.

• ELISA
• Lewy body dementia
• Parkinson's disease
• plasma
• synuclein

Acknowledgements

We thank Eva Poulsen, Hospital of Aalborg and Jette B. Lauridsen, Institute of Medical Biochemistry, for excellent laboratory assistance. The work was funded by the Research Foundation at the Hospital of Aalborg, Denmark, the Danish Medical Research Council (22‐03‐0314), the Danish Medical Association's Research Fund/Wacherhausen grant and the Biotech initiative at the Medical Faculty, University of Aarhus.