Study of the molecular mechanism of autophagy activation<i> via </i>nicotine receptors in a cellular model for Parkinson‘s disease

[Background] Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have increasingly been realized to have common cellular and molecular mechanisms including protein aggregation and inclusion body formation. In the present study, to examine whether the activation of a7 nicotinic receptor has neuroprotective effect against PD-associated mutant a-synuclein-induced aggregation and neurotoxicity in a cellular model, we used nicotine and PNU 282987, an a7 nicotinic receptor agonist.