Research progress on the effect of α-synuclein in acupuncture treatment for Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic progressive neurological degenerative disease caused by the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. α-synuclein (α-Syn) misfolding and aggregation is the crucial pathogenesis of PD, and is closely related to the other pathogenesis, such as brain-gut axis dysfunction, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, iron and lipid metabolic disorders, and autophagy lysosomal dysfunction. Acupuncture plays a neuroprotective role by attenuating neuroinflammation, regulating brain-gut axis, repairing ubiquitin-proteasome system and autophagy lysosomal system, and modulating signaling pathways, so as to inhibit α-Syn abnormal folding and aggregation. This article reviews the effect of α-Syn in the pathogenesis of PD and acupuncture treatment, so as to provide the valuable guidance for clinical treatment.