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- Prudencio, Mercedes, et al.
(författare)
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Toward allele-specific targeting therapy and pharmacodynamic marker for spinocerebellar ataxia type 3
- 2020
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Ingår i: Science Translational Medicine. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 1946-6242 .- 1946-6234. ; 12:566
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3), caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the ataxin-3 gene (ATXN3), is characterized by neuronal polyglutamine (polyQ) ATXN3 protein aggregates. Although there is no cure for SCA3, gene-silencing approaches to reduce toxic polyQ ATXN3 showed promise in preclinical models. However, a major limitation in translating putative treatments for this rare disease to the clinic is the lack of pharmacodynamic markers for use in clinical trials. Here, we developed an immunoassay that readily detects polyQ ATXN3 proteins in human biological fluids and discriminates patients with SCA3 from healthy controls and individuals with other ataxias. We show that polyQ ATXN3 serves as a marker of target engagement in human fibroblasts, which may bode well for its use in clinical trials. Last, we identified a single-nucleotide polymorphism that strongly associates with the expanded allele, thus providing an exciting drug target to abrogate detrimental events initiated by mutant ATXN3. Gene-silencing strategies for several repeat diseases are well under way, and our results are expected to improve clinical trial preparedness for SCA3 therapies.
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2. |
- Bedding, Timothy R., et al.
(författare)
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A multi-site campaign to measure solar-like oscillations in Procyon. II. mode frequencies
- 2010
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 713:2, s. 935-949
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We have analyzed data from a multi-site campaign to observe oscillations in the F5 star Procyon. The data consist of high-precision velocities that we obtained over more than three weeks with 11 telescopes. A new method for adjusting the data weights allows us to suppress the sidelobes in the power spectrum. Stacking the power spectrum in a so-called echelle diagram reveals two clear ridges, which we identify with even and odd values of the angular degree (l = 0 and 2, and l = 1 and 3, respectively). We interpret a strong, narrow peak at 446 mu Hz that lies close to the l = 1 ridge as a mode with mixed character. We show that the frequencies of the ridge centroids and their separations are useful diagnostics for asteroseismology. In particular, variations in the large separation appear to indicate a glitch in the sound-speed profile at an acoustic depth of similar to 1000 s. We list frequencies for 55 modes extracted from the data spanning 20 radial orders, a range comparable to the best solar data, which will provide valuable constraints for theoretical models. A preliminary comparison with published models shows that the offset between observed and calculated frequencies for the radial modes is very different for Procyon than for the Sun and other cool stars. We find the mean lifetime of the modes in Procyon to be 1.29(-0.49)(+0.55) days, which is significantly shorter than the 2-4 days seen in the Sun.
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