Cleaning procedures to protect Parkinson's researchers

Scientists have revealed the cleaning procedures that best protect Parkinson’s disease (PD) researchers from alpha-synuclein (α-Syn), a protein that makes up Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites in PD patients and self-assembles into fibrils in vitro. If introduced into the human body, these seeds can act as prions and trigger the formation of toxic protein deposits.

α-Syn is purified and assembled in test tubes into fibrils that are used to investigate/mimic PD pathogenesis in model animals, ranging from worms to rodents and non-human primates in a large number of laboratories. These laboratories typically contain surfaces and non-disposable items made from plastic, glass, aluminium or stainless steel. These items are often rough, with areas that cannot be completely cleaned by wiping. Therefore, it is important to minimise contamination through effective cleaning procedures.

“Several teams, including ours, demonstrated that fibrillar α-Syn propagate from one cell, including neurons, to another and amplify during this propagation process mimicking prion particle behaviour,” said the lead investigator of the recent study, Dr Ronald Melki, director of research at the Paris-Saclay Institute of Neurosciences, CNRS. “These observations suggest that fibrillar α-Syn is not innocuous.”

In order to assess the best methods to remove and disassemble α-Syn seeds, Dr Melki’s team applied a solution of fluorescently labelled fibrils and ribbons of α-Syn to roughened surfaces mimicking laboratory conditions. Five cleaning solutions were tested — sodium hypochlorite (20,000 ppm); sodium hydroxide (1N); sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS, 1%, W/V); Hellmanex (1%, V/V); and TFD4 (1%, V/V) — with the results published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.

The researchers found that the commercial detergents Hellmanex and SDS (1%, W/V) are the most suitable cleaning reagents for removal and neutralisation of α-Syn seeds from contaminated surfaces. Solutions of sodium hypochlorite (20,000 ppm) or sodium hydroxide (1N), previously shown to diminish prion infectivity, were ineffective, as was plain water (used as a control).

“We conclude that cleaning procedures relying on the use of detergents that are compatible with most non-disposable tools in a laboratory are simple to implement and highly recommended when working with fibrillar α-Syn in a laboratory setting,” said co-investigator Dr Patrik Brundin, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease and director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Science at the Van Andel Research Institute, Michigan.

“The procedures we describe remove and inactivate α-Syn fibrillar assemblies to a level where they are undetectable, which significantly improve researchers’ safety when handling fibrillar α-Syn,” added co-investigator Dr Luc Bousset from the Paris-Saclay Institute of Neurosciences. “Further work is needed to establish the infectious unit of recombinant α-Syn and the biological efficiency of the cleaning.”

Image credit: ©FreeImages.com/aksoy

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