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- de Rojas, I., et al.
(författare)
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Common variants in Alzheimer’s disease and risk stratification by polygenic risk scores
- 2021
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 12:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Genetic discoveries of Alzheimer’s disease are the drivers of our understanding, and together with polygenetic risk stratification can contribute towards planning of feasible and efficient preventive and curative clinical trials. We first perform a large genetic association study by merging all available case-control datasets and by-proxy study results (discovery n = 409,435 and validation size n = 58,190). Here, we add six variants associated with Alzheimer’s disease risk (near APP, CHRNE, PRKD3/NDUFAF7, PLCG2 and two exonic variants in the SHARPIN gene). Assessment of the polygenic risk score and stratifying by APOE reveal a 4 to 5.5 years difference in median age at onset of Alzheimer’s disease patients in APOE ɛ4 carriers. Because of this study, the underlying mechanisms of APP can be studied to refine the amyloid cascade and the polygenic risk score provides a tool to select individuals at high risk of Alzheimer’s disease. © 2021, The Author(s).
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| 4. |
- Bellenguez, C, et al.
(författare)
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New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1546-1718 .- 1061-4036. ; 54:4, s. 412-436
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/‘proxy’ AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele.
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- Jansen, Iris E, et al.
(författare)
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Genome-wide meta-analysis for Alzheimer's disease cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers.
- 2022
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Ingår i: Acta neuropathologica. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1432-0533 .- 0001-6322. ; 144:5, s. 821-842
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Amyloid-beta 42 (Aβ42) and phosphorylated tau (pTau) levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) reflect core features of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) more directly than clinical diagnosis. Initiated by the European Alzheimer & Dementia Biobank (EADB), the largest collaborative effort on genetics underlying CSF biomarkers was established, including 31 cohorts with a total of 13,116 individuals (discovery n=8074; replication n=5042 individuals). Besides the APOE locus, novel associations with two other well-established AD risk loci were observed; CR1 was shown a locus for Aβ42 and BIN1 for pTau. GMNC and C16orf95 were further identified as loci for pTau, of which the latter is novel. Clustering methods exploring the influence of all known AD risk loci on the CSF protein levels, revealed 4 biological categories suggesting multiple Aβ42 and pTau related biological pathways involved in the etiology of AD. In functional follow-up analyses, GMNC and C16orf95 both associated with lateral ventricular volume, implying an overlap in genetic etiology for tau levels and brain ventricular volume.
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- Nordfors, K., et al.
(författare)
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Peroxiredoxins and antioxidant enzymes in pilocytic astrocytomas
- 2007
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Ingår i: Clinical Neuropathology. - 0722-5091. ; 26:5, s. 210-218
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: Peroxiredoxins are antioxidant enzymes (AOEs), which are redox-regulated thiol proteins with potential effects on the growth, invasion and drug resistance of neoplastic cells. In this study, their biology and clinical significance were examined in pilocytic astrocytomas (PAs). Material and methods: The expression of peroxiredoxins (Prx I-VI) was investigated in 105 PAs by the means of immunohistochemistry and compared with the expression of selected other antioxidant enzymes, cell proliferation, angiogenesis, apoptosis, p53, histopathology and patient survival. Results: Peroxiredoxins were strongly expressed in general suggesting that oxidative damage and consequent defense takes place during the progression of pilocytic astrocytomas. In agreement with this hypothesis, several other AOEs correlated with the degenerative features and angiogenesis possibly associated with reactive oxygen species-derived cellular damage. Moreover, the expression of the AOEs was associated with each other indicating a concurrent activation of the enzymes. With the exception of manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), a strong expression of AOEs was generally associated with higher cell proliferation. Prx VI seemed to have a positive association with a longer recurrence-free interval while other AOEs had no association with patient survival. Many AOEs, such as MnSOD, induce chemo- and radioresistance and are highly elevated in aggressive malignancies. PAs lack this confounding factor, and these tumors are treated only by surgery Conclusions: Taken together, the results of this study on pilocytic astrocytomas suggest that the levels of Prxs and other AOEs and their related thiol proteins are generally strongly expressed in these tumors. At least Prx VI can contribute to tumor behavior which can make it a potential prognostic factor.
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- Martiskainen, Henna, et al.
(författare)
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Transcriptomics and mechanistic elucidation of Alzheimer's disease risk genes in the brain and in vitro models
- 2015
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Ingår i: Neurobiology of Aging. - : Elsevier BV. - 0197-4580 .- 1558-1497. ; 36:2, s. 1221e15-1221e28
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study, we have assessed the expression and splicing status of genes involved in the pathogenesis or affecting the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the postmortem inferior temporal cortex samples obtained from 60 subjects with varying degree of AD-related neurofibrillary pathology. These subjects were grouped based on neurofibrillary pathology into 3 groups: Braak stages 0-II, Braak stages III-IV, and Braak stages V-VI. We also examined the right frontal cortical biopsies obtained during life from 22 patients with idiopathic shunt-responding normal pressure hydrocephalus, a disease that displays similar pathologic alterations as seen in AD. These 22 patients were categorized according to dichotomized amyloid-β positive or negative pathology in the biopsies. We observed that the expression of FRMD4A significantly decreased, and the expression of MS4A6A significantly increased in relation to increasing AD-related neurofibrillary pathology. Moreover, the expression of 2 exons in both CLU and TREM2 significantly increased with increase in AD-related neurofibrillary pathology. However, a similar trend toward increased expression in CLU and TREM2 was observed with most of the studied exons, suggesting a global change in the expression rather than altered splicing. Correlation of gene expression with well-established AD-related factors, such as α-, β-, and γ-secretase activities, brain amyloid-β42 levels, and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, revealed a positive correlation between β-secretase activity and the expression of TREM2 and BIN1. In expression quantitative trait loci analysis, we did not detect significant effects of the risk alleles on gene expression or splicing. Analysis of the normal pressure hydrocephalus biopsies revealed no differences in the expression or splicing profiles of the studied genes between amyloid-β positive and negative patients. Using the protein-protein interaction-based in vitro pathway analysis tools, we found that downregulation of FRMD4A associated with increased APP-β-secretase interaction, increased amyloid-β40 secretion, and altered phosphorylation of tau. Taken together, our results suggest that the expression of FRMD4A, MS4A6A, CLU, and TREM2 is altered in relation to increasing AD-related neurofibrillary pathology, and that FRMD4A may play a role in amyloidogenic and tau-related pathways in AD. Therefore, investigation of gene expression changes in the brain and effects of the identified genes on disease-associated pathways in vitro may provide mechanistic insights on how alterations in these genes may contribute to AD pathogenesis.
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| 22. |
- Natunen, Teemu, et al.
(författare)
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Elucidation of the BACE1 Regulating Factor GGA3 in Alzheimer's Disease
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. - 1387-2877 .- 1875-8908. ; 37:1, s. 217-232
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Golgi-localized gamma-ear-containing ADP-ribosylation factor-binding protein (GGA3) is a central regulator of trafficking and degradation of BACE1 (beta-site A beta PP-cleaving enzyme), the rate-limiting enzyme in the production of amyloid-beta (A beta) in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we assessed the potential role of GGA3 in AD pathogenesis using independent neuropathological, case-control, and family-based human sample cohorts. Increased BACE1 levels coincided with decreased GGA3 levels and with elevated phosphorylation status of eIF2 alpha-Ser51 in the temporal cortex of AD patients as compared to age-matched controls. Severity of the disease did not alter mRNA or protein levels of GGA3 in the inferior temporal cortex of AD patients, while a positive correlation between GGA3 and the levels of total, but not phosphorylated, tau was observed. Genetically, we did not observe consistent evidence for association between AD risk and common GGA3 polymorphisms across a number of independent sample cohorts. However, a nominally significant association was observed with rs2242230 (p < 0.05) among the Finnish case-control cohort. Accordingly, mRNA and protein levels of GGA3 in the inferior temporal cortex of AD patients did not significantly correlate with rs2242230 genotype status. While the present study indicates that GGA3 is involved in the cellular processes relevant for AD pathogenesis, the genetic data do not support the idea that common GGA3 polymorphisms would contribute to AD risk.
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| 23. |
- Ranki, A., et al.
(författare)
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Abundant expression of HIV Nef and Rev proteins in brain astrocytes in vivo is associated with dementia
- 1995
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Ingår i: AIDS. - 0269-9370 .- 1473-5571. ; 9:9, s. 1001-8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: To relate the expression of HIV regulatory proteins and HIV-specific mRNA in the brain cells of infected individuals with clinical neurological disease. DESIGN: Formalin-fixed postmortem brain tissue from 14 HIV-infected adult patients, with previous repeated neurological and neuroradiological examinations, was studied by immunohistochemical and molecular biological methods. Samples from non-infected brains served as controls. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry with monoclonal antibodies (MAb) was combined with in situ RNA hybridization. Target cells were identified with MAb to glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP; astrocytes), CD68 (activated macrophages) and Ricinus communis agglutinin (RCA-1; microglia, endothelial cells). For HIV, a panel of MAb against HIV Nef, Tat, Rev and Env proteins or probes specific for all classes of mRNA (nef), for singly or non-spliced mRNA (env) and for non-spliced mRNA (gag/pol) were used. RESULTS: Nef protein was detected in subcortical or subpial astrocytes in seven out of 14 samples, and in multinucleated giant cells in two cases. Gag/pol or env mRNA-expressing astrocytes were detected in four cases. In four out of five cases studied, HIV Rev, but not Tat, was also expressed in astrocytes. Six out of the seven patients with Nef-positive astrocytes had suffered from moderate to severe dementia. The patient with most rapidly progressing severe dementia showed extensive HIV mRNA expression together with Nef and Rev expression in astrocytes. CONCLUSION: In adult human brain, astrocytes are infected by HIV and preferentially express HIV Nef and Rev proteins but are also sometimes productively infected. Astrocyte infection is associated with moderate to severe dementia which agrees with recent knowledge on the housekeeping activities of astrocytes and their eventual role in learning and memory.
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| 25. |
- Sainio, M. T., et al.
(författare)
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Neurofilament Light Regulates Axon Caliber, Synaptic Activity, and Organelle Trafficking in Cultured Human Motor Neurons
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-634X. ; 9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Neurofilament light (NFL) is one of the proteins forming multimeric neuron-specific intermediate filaments, neurofilaments, which fill the axonal cytoplasm, establish caliber growth, and provide structural support. Dominant missense mutations and recessive nonsense mutations in the neurofilament light gene (NEFL) are among the causes of Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) neuropathy, which affects the peripheral nerves with the longest axons. We previously demonstrated that a neuropathy-causing homozygous nonsense mutation in NEFL led to the absence of NFL in patient-specific neurons. To understand the disease-causing mechanisms, we investigate here the functional effects of NFL loss in human motor neurons differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). We used genome editing to generate NEFL knockouts and compared them to patient-specific nonsense mutants and isogenic controls. iPSC lacking NFL differentiated efficiently into motor neurons with normal axon growth and regrowth after mechanical axotomy and contained neurofilaments. Electrophysiological analysis revealed that motor neurons without NFL fired spontaneous and evoked action potentials with similar characteristics as controls. However, we found that, in the absence of NFL, human motor neurons 1) had reduced axonal caliber, 2) the amplitude of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSC) was decreased, 3) neurofilament heavy (NFH) levels were reduced and no compensatory increases in other filament subunits were observed, and 4) the movement of mitochondria and to a lesser extent lysosomes was increased. Our findings elaborate the functional roles of NFL in human motor neurons. NFL is not only a structural protein forming neurofilaments and filling the axonal cytoplasm, but our study supports the role of NFL in the regulation of synaptic transmission and organelle trafficking. To rescue the NFL deficiency in the patient-specific nonsense mutant motor neurons, we used three drugs, amlexanox, ataluren (PTC-124), and gentamicin to induce translational read-through or inhibit nonsense-mediated decay. However, the drugs failed to increase the amount of NFL protein to detectable levels and were toxic to iPSC-derived motor neurons.
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| 29. |
- Yi, W, et al.
(författare)
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Expression of leucine-rich repeats and immunoglobulin-like domains (LRIG) proteins in human ependymoma relates to tumor location, WHO grade, and patient age
- 2009
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Ingår i: Clinical Neuropathology. - 0722-5091. ; 28:1, s. 21-27
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Three human leucine-rich repeats and immunoglobulin-like domains (LRIG1-3) genes and proteins have recently been characterized. LRIG1 has been shown to be a suppressor of tumor growth by counteracting the signaling of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family members, including EGFR (ERBB1). Expression of LRIG proteins seems to be of importance in the pathogenesis of astrocytic tumors. In this study, the expression of LRIG1-3 was evaluated in 51 human ependymomas by immunohistochemistry. LRIG proteins were detected in all ependymomas analyzed, however, with a pronounced heterogeneity in expression and subcellular localization. Higher cytoplasmic immunoreactivity of LRIG1 correlated with older patient age and higher LRIG1 nuclear immunoreactivity with lower WHO Grade. LRIG1 displayed a stronger immunoreactivity in the cytoplasm and nuclei in spinal ependymomas than in the posterior fossa or supratentorial ependymomas, while perinuclear LRIG3 was more highly expressed in supratentorial than in infratentorial ependymomas. The indications that expression and subcellular localization of LRIG proteins could be pathogenetically associated with specific clinicopathological features of ependymoma tumors might be of importance in the carcinogeneses and tumor progression of human ependymomas.
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