A Parkinson’s-linked protein can spread from cell to cell, and Yale researchers found the two-protein complex that appears to help it get inside neurons and trigger damage

A protein associated with Parkinson’s disease can move from one brain cell to another. Yale researchers have now identified an interacting pair of proteins that appears to help it cross the cell membrane and contribute to neuronal damage. The proteins, mGluR4 and NPDC1, are found on the surfaces of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra, the brain region whose deterioration causes many of Parkinson’s characteristic movement problems. In laboratory cells and mouse models, both...