Unexpected similarities between C9ORF72 and sporadic forms of ALS/FTD suggest a common disease mechanism
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2018Journal
eLifePublisher
eLife Sciences Publications LtdType
Article
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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) represent two ends of a disease spectrum with shared clinical, genetic and pathological features. These include near ubiquitous pathological inclusions of the RNA-binding protein (RBP) TDP-43, and often the presence of a GGGGCC expansion in the C9ORF72 (C9) gene. Previously, we reported that the sequestration of hnRNP H altered the splicing of target transcripts in C9ALS patients (Conlon et al., 2016). Here, we show that this signature also occurs in half of 50 postmortem sporadic, non-C9 ALS/FTD brains. Furthermore, and equally surprisingly, these ‘like-C9’ brains also contained correspondingly high amounts of insoluble TDP-43, as well as several other disease-related RBPs, and this correlates with widespread global splicing defects. Finally, we show that the like-C9 sporadic patients, like actual C9ALS patients, were much more likely to have developed FTD. We propose that these unexpected links between C9 and sporadic ALS/FTD define a common mechanism in this disease spectrum. Copyright 2018, eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. All rights reserved.Sponsors
This work was supported by NIH grant R35 GM 118136 to JLM. EGC was supported in part by NIH training grant 5T32GM008798. RNA sequencing and related analyses at the NYGC were supported by the ALS Association (grant 15-LGCA-234) and the Tow Foundation.Keyword
Amyotrophic Lateral SclerosisBrain
C9orf72 Protein
DNA-Binding Proteins
Frontotemporal Dementia
Heterogeneous-Nuclear Ribonucleoproteins
Humans
Mutagenesis, Insertional
Polypyrimidine Tract-Binding Protein
RNA Splicing
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https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85052201257&doi=10.7554%2feLife.37754&partnerID=40&md5=b833487b0744b52d7c2b8be4aebfcb6a; http://hdl.handle.net/10713/9781ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.7554/eLife.37754
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