Characterisation of Oxidative Stress, DNA Damage and Inflammation in a Cellular Model of Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease and is a synucleinopathy due to the critical role of α-synuclein (α-Syn) in its pathology. α-Syn is able to translocate from the cytoplasm to the nucleus and cause DNA damage. Methods: SH-SY5Y cells were stably transfected with plasmids containing wild type (WT) α-Syn and A53T mutant α-Syn as fusion proteins with EGFP and an EGFP only control vector. The cells were differentiated using retinoid acid (RA) and treated with hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2) and analysed in a differentiated state for the effects of oxidative stress using flow cytometry, DNA damage using γH2A.X staining and inflammatory and senescence markers using qPCR.