Fig. 1: Decreased ATP13A2 levels in midbrain dopamine neurons lead to a PD-like pattern of nigrostriatal degeneration.

a Representative images (top) and quantification (bottom) of Tyrosine Hydroxylase (TH)-positive neurons by stereological counting in the substantia nigra (SN) of control and shATP13A2-injected macaques five months after injection (SNpc: p = 0.0025, t = 3.814). Scale bar: 500 μm (top) 200 µm (inset). b Illustrative images (left) and scatter plots (right) of striatal TH, AADC and DAT immunostaining in control and shATP13A2-injected macaques, expressed as a percentage of controls (TH put: p = 0.0038, t = 3.947; TH cd: p = 0.00605, t = 3.548; AADC put: p = 0.0001, t = 10.45; AADC cd: p = 0.0001, t = 10.04; DAT put: p = 0.0557, t = 1.866; DAT cd: p = 0.0129, t = 2.944). A green fire blue LUT (lookup table) was used to enhance contrast and highlight the differences between non-injected and shAP13A2-injected macaques at the striatum level. Scale bars = 5 mm. Each dot represents one hemisphere of the control (black) and shATP13A2-injected NHPs (red) (light red is one macaque/deep red is the second macaque). The horizontal line indicates the average value per group ± SD. The bootstrapped mean difference with 95% CI (error bar) is shown on the right side of each graph. Comparisons were made using unpaired t-tests, *p < 0.05.