In addition to trying to understand the role of Lewy bodies in Lewy body diseases, it is also important to understand why alpha-synuclein sticks together in these diseases. As Lewy bodies are usually only found in neurodegenerative diseases, it suggests their formation might be due to something going wrong in brain cells. Therefore, it is really important to understand why this is occurring if we are to know what is causing these diseases and, by extension, gain ideas about how to treat them.

One way we can attempt to understand what is causing alpha-synuclein is to look at results from genetic studies. Genetic studies do not mean these diseases are inherited in a simplistic sense, as this is not the case for most people with Lewy body diseases. Genetic risk in Lewy body diseases usually refers to slight differences in our genes that occur naturally across and between different people. Genetic studies look to see if particular differences in genes are more likely to occur in people with particular diseases, as understanding what such genes do can help give us clues as to what might cause the disease in question.

Although Lewy body diseases are associated with the build-up of proteins in the brain, it is notable that many genes associated with Lewy body diseases make proteins involved in breaking down fats. This suggests that particular fats might build up in the brains of people with Lewy body diseases, and we have been studying this and how it could make alpha-synuclein build up in the brain, as in Lewy body diseases. Many of the fats that seem to be important in Lewy body diseases also build up in rare brain diseases that usually affect children, so we have also been studying these diseases to understand how these fats could be changing brain function in Lewy body diseases.