ArticleNPJ Parkinson's disease2018
Neuromelanin organelles are specialized autolysosomes that accumulate undegraded proteins and lipids in aging human brain and are likely involved in Parkinson's disease.
Article in NPJ Parkinson's disease, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 96 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
96 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 152 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neuromelanin-Sensitive Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Schizophrenia: A Meta-Analysis of Case-Control Studies.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- The diagnostic value of SNpc using NM-MRI in Parkinson's disease: meta-analysis.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2019Pooled it
- Single-nucleus multiomic profiling of the aging mouse substantia nigra reveals conserved gene alterations linked to Parkinson's disease.Genome research · 2026Article
- Semi-Automated Neuromelanin-Sensitive MRI Reveals Substantia Nigra Volume Reduction in Early Parkinson's Disease with Moderate Diagnostic Performance.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- 3D imaging of neuronal inclusions and protein aggregates in human neurodegeneration by multiscale x-ray phase-contrast tomography.Brain pathology (Zurich, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Associations of neuromelanin in the substantia nigra with antipsychotic response in schizophrenia.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Neuromelanin, iron and MRI measurements in midbrain tissues of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's subjects.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- Response to: Neuromelanin?Brain communications · 2026Article
- The Enigma of Neuromelanin: How Animal Models Can Help Researchers to Understand the Link Between Pigments and Neurodegeneration.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Patient-Derived Neurons Exhibit α-Synuclein Pathology and Previously Unrecognized Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I Elevation in Mitochondrial Membrane Protein-Associated Neurodegeneration.Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society · 2025Article
- A Spatially Resolved View on the Aging Substantia nigra: An Exploratory Proteomic Study.Advanced biology · 2025Article
- Influence of Nitrative Stress on the Synthesis of Neuromelanin Model Systems.ACS chemical neuroscience · 2025Article
- Impact of Alzheimer's disease risk factors and local neuromelanin content on the transcriptomic landscape of the human locus coeruleus.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Modeling Midbrain and Brainstem Neuromelanins to Characterize Metal Binding and Associated MRI Contrast in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's Diseases.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2025Article
- Evaluating Parkinson's disease biomarkers in substantia nigra following sublethal γ-radiation exposure in a large animal model.NPJ Parkinson's disease · 2025Article
- Automated Locus Coeruleus segmentation and age-related signal changes across Neuromelanin-sensitive MRI and T1/T2-weighted images.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Protein Expression of TXNIP in the Dopaminergic Neurons of Subjects with Parkinson's Disease: Evidence from a Pilot Study.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Standardised TruAI Automated Quantification of Intracellular Neuromelanin Granules in Human Brain Tissue Sections.Neuropathology and applied neurobiology · 2025Article
- A hypothesis explaining Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and dementia with Lewy bodies overlap.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Review
- Induction of Ferroptotic Cell Death by Neuromelanin Pigments in Dopaminergic Cells.ACS chemical neuroscience · 2025Article
36 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
During aging, neuronal organelles filled with neuromelanin (a dark-brown pigment) and lipid bodies accumulate in the brain, particularly in the substantia nigra, a region targeted in Parkinson's disease. We have investigated protein and lipid systems involved in the formation of these organelles and in the synthesis of the neuromelanin of human substantia nigra. Membrane and matrix proteins characteristic of lysosomes were found in neuromelanin-containing organelles at a lower number than in typical lysosomes, indicating a reduced enzymatic activity and likely impaired capacity for lysosomal and autophagosomal fusion. The presence of proteins involved in lipid transport may explain the accumulation of lipid bodies in the organelle and the lipid component in neuromelanin structure. The major lipids observed in lipid bodies of the organelle are dolichols with lower amounts of other lipids. Proteins of aggregation and degradation pathways were present, suggesting a role for accumulation by this organelle when the ubiquitin-proteasome system is inadequate. The presence of proteins associated with aging and storage diseases may reflect impaired autophagic degradation or impaired function of lysosomal enzymes. The identification of typical autophagy proteins and double membranes demonstrates the organelle's autophagic nature and indicates that it has engulfed neuromelanin precursors from the cytosol. Based on these data, it appears that the neuromelanin-containing organelle has a very slow turnover during the life of a neuron and represents an intracellular compartment of final destination for numerous molecules not degraded by other systems.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.