| 1. |
- Wray, Selina, et al.
(author)
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Creation of an Open-Access, Mutation-Defined Fibroblast Resource for Neurological Disease Research
- 2012
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In: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 7:8
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of many neurological disorders has been greatly enhanced by the discovery of mutations in genes linked to familial forms of these diseases. These have facilitated the generation of cell and animal models that can be used to understand the underlying molecular pathology. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in the use of patient-derived cells, due to the development of induced pluripotent stem cells and their subsequent differentiation into neurons and glia. Access to patient cell lines carrying the relevant mutations is a limiting factor for many centres wishing to pursue this research. We have therefore generated an open-access collection of fibroblast lines from patients carrying mutations linked to neurological disease. These cell lines have been deposited in the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Repository at the Coriell Institute for Medical Research and can be requested by any research group for use in in vitro disease modelling. There are currently 71 mutation-defined cell lines available for request from a wide range of neurological disorders and this collection will be continually expanded. This represents a significant resource that will advance the use of patient cells as disease models by the scientific community.
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| 2. |
- Dewan, Ramita, et al.
(author)
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Pathogenic Huntingtin Repeat Expansions in Patients with Frontotemporal Dementia and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
- 2021
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In: Neuron. - : Elsevier BV. - 1097-4199 .- 0896-6273. ; 109:3, s. 448-460.e4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We examined the role of repeat expansions in the pathogenesis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) by analyzing whole-genome sequence data from 2,442 FTD/ALS patients, 2,599 Lewy body dementia (LBD) patients, and 3,158 neurologically healthy subjects. Pathogenic expansions (range, 40-64 CAG repeats) in the huntingtin (HTT) gene were found in three (0.12%) patients diagnosed with pure FTD/ALS syndromes but were not present in the LBD or healthy cohorts. We replicated our findings in an independent collection of 3,674 FTD/ALS patients. Postmortem evaluations of two patients revealed the classical TDP-43 pathology of FTD/ALS, as well as huntingtin-positive, ubiquitin-positive aggregates in the frontal cortex. The neostriatal atrophy that pathologically defines Huntington's disease was absent in both cases. Our findings reveal an etiological relationship between HTT repeat expansions and FTD/ALS syndromes and indicate that genetic screening of FTD/ALS patients for HTT repeat expansions should be considered.
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| 3. |
- Sailer, Anna, et al.
(author)
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A genome-wide association study in multiple system atrophy
- 2016
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In: Neurology. - 0028-3878. ; 87:15, s. 1591-1598
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objective: To identify genetic variants that play a role in the pathogenesis of multiple system atrophy (MSA), we undertook a genome-wide association study (GWAS). Methods: We performed a GWAS with >5 million genotyped and imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 918 patients with MSA of European ancestry and 3,864 controls. MSA cases were collected from North American and European centers, one third of which were neuropathologically confirmed. Results: We found no significant loci after stringent multiple testing correction. A number of regions emerged as potentially interesting for follow-up at p < 1 × 10-6, including SNPs in the genes FBXO47, ELOVL7, EDN1, and MAPT. Contrary to previous reports, we found no association of the genes SNCA and COQ2 with MSA. Conclusions: We present a GWAS in MSA. We have identified several potentially interesting gene loci, including the MAPT locus, whose significance will have to be evaluated in a larger sample set. Common genetic variation in SNCA and COQ2 does not seem to be associated with MSA. In the future, additional samples of well-characterized patients with MSA will need to be collected to perform a larger MSA GWAS, but this initial study forms the basis for these next steps.
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| 4. |
- Bras, Jose, et al.
(author)
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Genetic analysis implicates APOE, SNCA and suggests lysosomal dysfunction in the etiology of dementia with Lewy bodies.
- 2014
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In: Human molecular genetics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1460-2083 .- 0964-6906. ; 23:23, s. 6139-6146
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Clinical and neuropathological similarities between dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases (PD and AD, respectively) suggest that these disorders may share etiology. To test this hypothesis, we have performed an association study of 54 genomic regions, previously implicated in PD or AD, in a large cohort of DLB cases and controls. The cohort comprised 788 DLB cases and 2624 controls. To minimize the issue of potential misdiagnosis, we have also performed the analysis including only neuropathologically proven DLB cases (667 cases). The results show that the APOE is a strong genetic risk factor for DLB, confirming previous findings, and that the SNCA and SCARB2 loci are also associated after a study-wise Bonferroni correction, although these have a different association profile than the associations reported for the same loci in PD. We have previously shown that the p.N370S variant in GBA is associated with DLB, which, together with the findings at the SCARB2 locus, suggests a role for lysosomal dysfunction in this disease. These results indicate that DLB has a unique genetic risk profile when compared with the two most common neurodegenerative diseases and that the lysosome may play an important role in the etiology of this disorder. We make all these data available.
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| 5. |
- Guerreiro, Rita, et al.
(author)
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Genome-wide analysis of genetic correlation in dementia with Lewy bodies, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.
- 2016
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In: Neurobiology of Aging. - : Elsevier BV. - 1558-1497 .- 0197-4580. ; 38, s. 7-214
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The similarities between dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and both Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are many and range from clinical presentation, to neuropathological characteristics, to more recently identified, genetic determinants of risk. Because of these overlapping features, diagnosing DLB is challenging and has clinical implications since some therapeutic agents that are applicable in other diseases have adverse effects in DLB. Having shown that DLB shares some genetic risk with PD and AD, we have now quantified the amount of sharing through the application of genetic correlation estimates, and show that, from a purely genetic perspective, and excluding the strong association at the APOE locus, DLB is equally correlated to AD and PD.
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| 6. |
- Kun-Rodrigues, Celia, et al.
(author)
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A comprehensive screening of copy number variability in dementia with Lewy bodies.
- 2019
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In: Neurobiology of aging. - : Elsevier BV. - 1558-1497 .- 0197-4580. ; 75
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The role of genetic variability in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is now indisputable; however, data regarding copy number variation (CNV) in this disease has been lacking. Here, we used whole-genome genotyping of 1454 DLB cases and 1525 controls to assess copy number variability. We used 2 algorithms to confidently detect CNVs, performed a case-control association analysis, screened for candidate CNVs previously associated with DLB-related diseases, and performed a candidate gene approach to fully explore the data. We identified 5 CNV regions with a significant genome-wide association to DLB; 2 of these were only present in cases and absent from publicly available databases: one of the regions overlapped LAPTM4B, a known lysosomal protein, whereas the other overlapped the NME1 locus and SPAG9. We also identified DLB cases presenting rare CNVs in genes previously associated with DLB or related neurodegenerative diseases, such as SNCA, APP, and MAPT. To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting genome-wide CNVs in a large DLB cohort. These results provide preliminary evidence for the contribution of CNVs in DLB risk.
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| 7. |
- Sproviero, William, et al.
(author)
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ATXN2 trinucleotide repeat length correlates with risk of ALS
- 2017
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In: Neurobiology of Aging. - : Elsevier BV. - 0197-4580 .- 1558-1497. ; 51, s. 178.e1-178.e9
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We investigated a CAG trinucleotide repeat expansion in the ATXN2 gene in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Two new case-control studies, a British dataset of 1474 ALS cases and 567 controls, and a Dutch dataset of 1328 ALS cases and 691 controls were analyzed. In addition, to increase power, we systematically searched PubMed for case-control studies published after 1 August 2010 that investigated the association between ATXN2 intermediate repeats and ALS. We conducted a meta-analysis of the new and existing studies for the relative risks of ATXN2 intermediate repeat alleles of between 24 and 34 CAG trinucleotide repeats and ALS. There was an overall increased risk of ALS for those carrying intermediate sized trinucleotide repeat alleles (odds ratio 3.06 [95% confidence interval 2.37-3.94]; p = 6 × 10(-18)), with an exponential relationship between repeat length and ALS risk for alleles of 29-32 repeats (R(2) = 0.91, p = 0.0002). No relationship was seen for repeat length and age of onset or survival. In contrast to trinucleotide repeat diseases, intermediate ATXN2 trinucleotide repeat expansion in ALS does not predict age of onset but does predict disease risk.
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