National Railway Company of Belgium

SNCB/NMBS (Dutch: Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische Spoorwegen,French: Société nationale des chemins de fer belges, German: Nationale Gesellschaft der Belgischen Eisenbahnen) is the national railway company of Belgium. The company formally styles itself using the Dutch and French abbreviations NMBS/SNCB, however it is commonly referred to in English and internationally using just the French abbreviation SNCB. The corporate logo designed in 1936 by Henry van de Velde consists of the linguistically neutral letter B in a horizontal oval.

History

NMBS/SNCB is an autonomous government company, formed in 1926 as successor to the Belgian State Railways. In 2005, the company was split up into three parts: Infrabel, which manages the railway infrastructure, network operations and network access, the public railway operator NMBS/SNCB itself to manage the freight (B-Cargo) and passenger services, and NMBS/SNCB-Holding, which owns both public companies and supervises the collaboration between them. Essentially, this was a move to facilitate future liberalisation of railway freight and passenger services in agreement with European regulations. Several freight operators have since received access permissions for the Belgian network. In February 2011, NMBS/SNCB Logistics began operating as a separate business.

Beta-synuclein

Beta-synuclein is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SNCB gene.

The protein encoded by this gene is highly homologous to alpha-synuclein. These proteins are abundantly expressed in the brain and putatively inhibit phospholipase D2 selectively. The encoded protein, which may play a role in neuronal plasticity, is abundant in neurofibrillary lesions of patients with Alzheimer's disease. This protein has been shown to be highly expressed in the substantia nigra of the brain, a region of neuronal degeneration in patients with Parkinson's disease; however, no direct relation to Parkinson's disease has been established. Two transcript variants encoding the same protein have been found for this gene.

Beta-synuclein is a synuclein protein found primarily in brain tissue and is seen mainly in presynaptic terminals. Beta-synuclein is predominantly expressed in the neocortex, hippocampus, striatum, thalamus, and cerebellum. It is not found in Lewy bodies, but it is associated with hippocampal pathology in PD and DLB.