PRKN and Parkinson disease: Interestingly, many of the genes implicated in the progression of PD, such as ATP13A2, GBA1, LRRK2, PARK7, PINK1 and PARKIN are highly expressed in human astrocytes [22, 160-162], and human post-mortem brain studies, in vitro, as well as in vivo models of a-syn [90] suggest a significant role for astrocytes in a-syn pathology.