| 1. |
- Van Raamsdonk, Jeremy M., et al.
(författare)
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Testicular degeneration in Huntington disease
- 2007
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Ingår i: Neurobiology of Disease. - : Elsevier BV. - 0969-9961. ; 26:3, s. 512-520
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Huntington disease (HD) is an adult onset, neurodegenerative disorder that results from CAG expansion in the HD gene. Recent work has demonstrated testicular degeneration in mouse models of HD and alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis in HD patients. Here, we show that HD patients have specific testicular pathology with reduced numbers of germ cells and abnormal seminiferous tubule morphology. In the YAC128 mouse model, testicular degeneration develops prior to 12 months of age, but at 12 months, there is no evidence for decreased testosterone levels or loss of GnRH neurons in the hypothalamus. This suggests that testicular pathology results from a direct toxic effect of mutant huntingtin in the testis and is supported by the fact that huntingtin is highly expressed in the affected cell populations in the testis. Understanding the pathogenesis of HD in the testis may reveal common critical pathways which lead to degeneration in both the brain and testis.
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| 2. |
- Björkqvist, Maria, et al.
(författare)
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A novel pathogenic pathway of immune activation detectable before clinical onset in Huntington's disease.
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Experimental Medicine. - : Rockefeller University Press. - 1540-9538 .- 0022-1007. ; 205, s. 1869-1877
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder characterized by both neurological and systemic abnormalities. We examined the peripheral immune system and found widespread evidence of innate immune activation detectable in plasma throughout the course of HD. Interleukin 6 levels were increased in HD gene carriers with a mean of 16 years before the predicted onset of clinical symptoms. To our knowledge, this is the earliest plasma abnormality identified in HD. Monocytes from HD subjects expressed mutant huntingtin and were pathologically hyperactive in response to stimulation, suggesting that the mutant protein triggers a cell-autonomous immune activation. A similar pattern was seen in macrophages and microglia from HD mouse models, and the cerebrospinal fluid and striatum of HD patients exhibited abnormal immune activation, suggesting that immune dysfunction plays a role in brain pathology. Collectively, our data suggest parallel central nervous system and peripheral pathogenic pathways of immune activation in HD.
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| 3. |
- Träger, Ulrike, et al.
(författare)
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Characterisation of immune cell function in fragment and full-length Huntington's disease mouse models.
- 2015
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Ingår i: Neurobiology of Disease. - : Elsevier BV. - 0969-9961. ; 73, s. 388-398
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Inflammation is a growing area of research in neurodegeneration. In Huntington's disease (HD), a fatal inherited neurodegenerative disease caused by a CAG-repeat expansion in the gene encoding huntingtin, patients have increased plasma levels of inflammatory cytokines and circulating monocytes that are hyper-responsive to immune stimuli. Several mouse models of HD also show elevated plasma levels of inflammatory cytokines. To further determine the degree to which these models recapitulate observations in HD patients, we evaluated various myeloid cell populations from different HD mouse models to determine whether they are similarly hyper-responsive, as well as measuring other aspects of myeloid cell function. Myeloid cells from each of the three mouse models studied, R6/2, HdhQ150 knock-in and YAC128, showed increased cytokine production when stimulated. However, bone marrow CD11b(+) cells did not show the same hyper-responsive phenotype as spleen and blood cells. Furthermore, macrophages isolated from R6/2 mice show increased levels of phagocytosis, similar to findings in HD patients. Taken together, these results show significant promise for these mouse models to be used to study targeting innate immune pathways identified in human cells, thereby helping to understand the role the peripheral immune system plays in HD progression.
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| 4. |
- Wild, Edward J, et al.
(författare)
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Quantification of mutant huntingtin protein in cerebrospinal fluid from Huntington's disease patients.
- 2015
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Ingår i: The Journal of clinical investigation. - 1558-8238. ; 125:5, s. 1979-1986
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Quantification of disease-associated proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has been critical for the study and treatment of several neurodegenerative disorders; however, mutant huntingtin protein (mHTT), the cause of Huntington's disease (HD), is at very low levels in CSF and, to our knowledge, has never been measured previously.
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| 5. |
- Zeron, Melinda M, et al.
(författare)
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Increased Sensitivity to N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor-Mediated Excitotoxicity in a Mouse Model of Huntington's Disease.
- 2002
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Ingår i: Neuron. - 0896-6273. ; 33:6, s. 849-860
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous work suggests N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) activation may be involved in degeneration of medium-sized spiny striatal neurons in Huntington's disease (HD). Here we show that these neurons are more vulnerable to NMDAR-mediated death in a YAC transgenic FVB/N mouse model of HD expressing full-length mutant huntingtin, compared with wild-type FVB/N mice. Excitotoxic death of these neurons was increased after intrastriatal injection of quinolinate in vivo, and after NMDA but not AMPA exposure in culture. NMDA-induced cell death was abolished by an NR2B subtype-specific antagonist. In contrast, NMDAR-mediated death of cerebellar granule neurons was not enhanced, consistent with cell-type and NMDAR subtype specificity. Moreover, increased NMDA-evoked current amplitude and caspase-3 activity were observed in transgenic striatal neurons. Our data support a role for NR2B-subtype NMDAR activation as a trigger for selective neuronal degeneration in HD.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Dalrymple, Annette, et al.
(författare)
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Proteomic profiling of plasma in Huntington's disease reveals neuroinflammatory activation and biomarker candidates
- 2007
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Ingår i: Journal of Proteome Research. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1535-3893 .- 1535-3907. ; 6:7, s. 2833-2840
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Huntington's disease (HD) causes widespread CNS changes and systemic abnormalities including endocrine and immune dysfunction. HD biomarkers are needed to power clinical trials of potential treatments. We used multiplatform proteomic profiling to reveal plasma changes with HD progression. Proteins of interest were evaluated using immunoblotting and ELISA in plasma from 2 populations, CSF and R6/2 mice. The identified proteins demonstrate neuroinflammation in HD and warrant further investigation as possible biomarkers.
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| 8. |
- Johnson, Eileanoir B, et al.
(författare)
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Neurofilament light protein in blood predicts regional atrophy in Huntington disease.
- 2018
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Ingår i: Neurology. - 1526-632X. ; 90:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Neurofilament light (NfL) protein in blood plasma has been proposed as a prognostic biomarker of neurodegeneration in a number of conditions, including Huntington disease (HD). This study investigates the regional distribution of NfL-associated neural pathology in HD gene expansion carriers.We examined associations between NfL measured in plasma and regionally specific atrophy in cross-sectional (n = 198) and longitudinal (n = 177) data in HD gene expansion carriers from the international multisite TRACK-HD study. Using voxel-based morphometry, we measured associations between baseline NfL levels and both baseline gray matter and white matter volume; and longitudinal change in gray matter and white matter over the subsequent 3 years in HD gene expansion carriers.After controlling for demographics, associations between increased NfL levels and reduced brain volume were seen in cortical and subcortical gray matter and within the white matter. After also controlling for known predictors of disease progression (age and CAG repeat length), associations were limited to the caudate and putamen. Longitudinally, NfL predicted subsequent occipital gray matter atrophy and widespread white matter reduction, both before and after correction for other predictors of disease progression.These findings highlight the value of NfL as a dynamic marker of brain atrophy and, more generally, provide further evidence of the strong association between plasma NfL level, a candidate blood biomarker, and pathologic neuronal change.
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| 9. |
- Wagner, Leona, et al.
(författare)
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Proteolytic degradation of neuropeptide Y (NPY) from head to toe: Identification of novel NPY-cleaving peptidases and potential drug interactions in CNS and Periphery.
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Neurochemistry. - : Wiley. - 1471-4159 .- 0022-3042. ; 135:5, s. 1019-1037
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The bioactivity of neuropeptide Y (NPY) is either N-terminally modulated with respect to receptor-selectivity by dipeptidyl-peptidase 4 (DP4)-like enzymes or proteolytic degraded by neprilysin or meprins, thereby abrogating signal transduction. However, neither the subcellular nor the compartmental differentiation of these regulatory mechanisms is fully understood. Using mass spectrometry, selective inhibitors and histochemistry, studies across various cell types, body fluids and tissues revealed that most frequently DP4-like enzymes, aminopeptidases P (AmpP), secreted meprin-A (Mep-A) and cathepsin D (CTSD) rapidly hydrolyze NPY, depending on the cell type and tissue under study. Novel degradation of NPY by cathepsins B, D, L, G, S and tissue kallikrein could also be identified. Expression of DP4, CTSD, and Mep-A at the median eminence indicates that the bioactivity of NPY is regulated by peptidases at the interphase between the periphery and the CNS. Detailed ex vivo studies on human sera and CSF samples recognized CTSD as the major NPY-cleaving enzyme in the CSF, whereas an additional C-terminal truncation by angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) could be detected in serum. The latter finding hints to potential drug interaction between antidiabetic DP4 inhibitors and anti-hypertensive ACE inhibitors, while it ablates suspected hypertensive side-effects of only antidiabetic DP4-inhibitors application. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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