ABSTRACT
Can one protein connect almost everything of importance to us, from our thinking to health and disease? It can if it is a small protein discovered in 1988 and named synuclein. After music performance by musicians and songbirds practicing singing, there was an increased a-synuclein content in their blood. However, synucleins are also connected with neurotoxicity, aging, and malignancy. The oligomerization of helical synuclein segments in a membrane environment is important for the normal physiological function and the toxicity associated with synucleinopathies. There is a very fine dynamic balance between monomers' beneficial influence and the harmful activity of some higher-order oligomers, which can lead to the collapse of the brain's bioenergetics. Besides mitochondria recycling, synuclein contributes to synaptic transmission regulation by facilitating the recycling of synaptic vesicles, and it may be important in cellular cytoskeleton homeostasis. All of the mentioned roles require enhanced free-energy usage and dissipation. It will help to learn from nature in ever more detail on how biological evolution has solved the problem of exporting the created excess heat.
