Pocas, Gonçalo M.Branco-Santos, JoanaHerrera, FedericoOuteiro, TiagoDomingos, Pedro M.2022-05-262022-05-262014Hum Mol Genet. 2015 Apr 1;24(7):1898-19070964-6906http://hdl.handle.net/10451/53192© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.comProtein misfolding and aggregation is a major hallmark of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Huntington's disease (HD). Until recently, the consensus was that each aggregation-prone protein was characteristic of each disorder [α-synuclein (α-syn)/PD, mutant huntingtin (Htt)/HD, Tau and amyloid beta peptide/AD]. However, growing evidence indicates that aggregation-prone proteins can actually co-aggregate and modify each other's behavior and toxicity, suggesting that this process may also contribute to the overlap in clinical symptoms across different diseases. Here, we show that α-syn and mutant Htt co-aggregate in vivo when co-expressed in Drosophila and produce a synergistic age-dependent increase in neurotoxicity associated to a decline in motor function and life span. Altogether, our results suggest that the co-existence of α-syn and Htt in the same neuronal cells worsens aggregation-related neuropathologies and accelerates disease progression.engjournal article10.1093/hmg/ddu6061460-2083