SNCA and viral encephalitis: Even more, it has been recently reported that neuronal expression of alpha-synuclein, a protein closely linked to PD (Stefanis, 2012), inhibited RNA viral infections in the central nervous system, suggesting that acute onset of parkinsonian features during WNV encephalitis are likely due to viral-induced cell death of dopaminergic neurons resulting in acute loss of dopamine signaling (Beatman et al., 2015).