α-Synuclein binding to, and activating of the P2X7 receptor on microglia (Jiang et al., 2015; Wilkaniec et al., 2017) have been detected in the brains of patients with PD (Durrenberger et al., 2012; Jiang et al., 2015). This evidence concerns the gene P2RX7 and Parkinson disease.