SNCA and Parkinson disease: To put our work in the context of PD pathology, similar immunostaining experiments in the SNpc in midbrain sections revealed that Cav3.2 levels were robustly elevated not only in striatal but also in nigral astrocytes, further supporting a generalized molecular link between α-synuclein-induced neuroinflammation and astrocytic Cav3.2 upregulation (Additional file 1: Fig. S11h).