| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- Eschbach, Judith, et al.
(författare)
-
PGC-1 is a male-specific disease modifier of human and experimental amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Human Molecular Genetics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0964-6906 .- 1460-2083. ; 22:17, s. 3477-3484
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating, adult-onset neurodegenerative disorder of the upper and lower motor systems. It leads to paresis, muscle wasting and inevitably to death, typically within 35 years. However, disease onset and survival vary considerably ranging in extreme cases from a few months to several decades. The genetic and environmental factors underlying this variability are of great interest as potential therapeutic targets. In ALS, men are affected more often and have an earlier age of onset than women. This gender difference is recapitulated in transgenic rodent models, but no underlying mechanism has been elucidated. Here we report that SNPs in the brain-specific promoter region of the transcriptional co-activator PGC-1, a master regulator of metabolism, modulate age of onset and survival in two large and independent ALS populations and this occurs in a strictly male-specific manner. In complementary animal studies, we show that deficiency of full-length (FL) Pgc-1 leads to a significantly earlier age of onset and a borderline shortened survival in male, but not in female ALS-transgenic mice. In the animal model, FL Pgc-1-loss is associated with reduced mRNA levels of the trophic factor Vegf-A in males, but not in females. In summary, we indentify PGC-1 as a novel and clinically relevant disease modifier of human and experimental ALS and report a sex-dependent effect of PGC-1 in this neurodegenerative disorder.
|
|
| 3. |
- Freischmidt, Axel, et al.
(författare)
-
Serum microRNAs in patients with genetic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and pre-manifest mutation carriers
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Brain. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-8950 .- 1460-2156. ; 137:11, s. 2938-2950
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Knowledge about the nature of pathomolecular alterations preceding onset of symptoms in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is largely lacking. It could not only pave the way for the discovery of valuable therapeutic targets but might also govern future concepts of pre-manifest disease modifying treatments. MicroRNAs are central regulators of transcriptome plasticity and participate in pathogenic cascades and/or mirror cellular adaptation to insults. We obtained comprehensive expression profiles of microRNAs in the serum of patients with familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, asymptomatic mutation carriers and healthy control subjects. We observed a strikingly homogenous microRNA profile in patients with familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that was largely independent from the underlying disease gene. Moreover, we identified 24 significantly downregulated microRNAs in pre-manifest amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mutation carriers up to two decades or more before the estimated time window of disease onset; 91.7% of the downregulated microRNAs in mutation carriers overlapped with the patients with familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Bioinformatic analysis revealed a consensus sequence motif present in the vast majority of downregulated microRNAs identified in this study. Our data thus suggest specific common denominators regarding molecular pathogenesis of different amyotrophic lateral sclerosis genes. We describe the earliest pathomolecular alterations in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mutation carriers known to date, which provide a basis for the discovery of novel therapeutic targets and strongly argue for studies evaluating presymptomatic disease-modifying treatment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
|
|
| 4. |
- Rosenbohm, Angela, et al.
(författare)
-
Can lesions to the motor cortex induce amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Journal of Neurology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0340-5354 .- 1432-1459. ; 261:2, s. 283-290
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A recent staging effort for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has demonstrated that the TDP-43 neuropathology may initiate focally in the motor cortex in the majority of patients. We searched our data bank for patients with lesions of the motor cortex which preceded disease onset. We performed a search of our patient- and MRI-data bank and screened 1,835 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis for frontal lobe/motor cortex lesions. We found 18 patients with definite ALS who had documented and defined lesions of the motor cortex, which preceded the initial ALS symptoms by 8-42 years. In the vast majority (15/18) of the patients, the onset of ALS was closely related to the focal lesion since it started in a body region reflecting the damaged cortical area. The findings suggest that initial lesions to the motor cortex may be a contributing initiating factor in some patients with ALS or determine the site of onset in individuals pre-disposed to ALS.
|
|
