1. Pathogenic Huntingtin Repeat Expansions in Patients with Frontotemporal Dementia and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
- Author
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Dewan, Ramita, Chia, Ruth, Ding, Jinhui, Hickman, Richard A, Stein, Thor D, Abramzon, Yevgeniya, Ahmed, Sarah, Sabir, Marya S, Portley, Makayla K, Tucci, Arianna, Ibáñez, Kristina, Shankaracharya, FNU, Keagle, Pamela, Rossi, Giacomina, Caroppo, Paola, Tagliavini, Fabrizio, Waldo, Maria L, Johansson, Per M, Nilsson, Christer F, Rowe, James B, Benussi, Luisa, Binetti, Giuliano, Ghidoni, Roberta, Jabbari, Edwin, Viollet, Coralie, Glass, Jonathan D, Singleton, Andrew B, Silani, Vincenzo, Ross, Owen A, Ryten, Mina, Torkamani, Ali, Tanaka, Toshiko, Ferrucci, Luigi, Resnick, Susan M, Pickering-Brown, Stuart, Brady, Christopher B, Kowal, Neil, Hardy, John A, Van Deerlin, Vivianna, Vonsattel, Jean Paul, Harms, Matt, Morris, Christopher M, Ferrari, Raffaele, Landers, John E, Chiò, Adriano, Gibbs, Jesse Raphael, Dalgard, Clifton L, Scholz, Sonja W, Traynor, Bryan J, Adeleye, Adelani, Alba, Camille, Bacikova, Dagmar, Hupalo, Daniel N, Martinez, Elisa McGrath, Pollard, Harvey B, Sukumar, Gauthaman, Soltis, Anthony R, Tuck, Meila, Zhang, Xijun, Wilkerson, Matthew D, Smith, Bradley N, Ticozzi, Nicola, Fallini, Claudia, Gkazi, Athina Soragia, Topp, Simon D, Kost, Jason, Scotter, Emma L, Kenna, Kevin P, Miller, Jack W, Tiloca, Cinzia, Vance, Caroline, Danielson, Eric W, Troakes, Claire, Colombrita, Claudia, Al-Sarraj, Safa, Lewis, Elizabeth A, King, Andrew, Calini, Daniela, Pensato, Viviana, Castellotti, Barbara, de Belleroche, Jacqueline, Baas, Frank, Asbroek, Anneloor LMA ten, Sapp, Peter C, McKenna-Yasek, Diane, McLaughlin, Russell L, Polak, Meraida, Asress, Seneshaw, Esteban-Pérez, Jesús, Muñoz-Blanco, José Luis, Stevic, Zorica, D’Alfonso, Sandra, Mazzini, Letizia, Comi, Giacomo P, Del Bo, Roberto, Ceroni, Mauro, Gagliardi, Stella, Querin, Giorgia, Bertolin, Cinzia, and van Rheenen, Wouter
- Subjects
Genetics ,Alzheimer's Disease including Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) ,Clinical Research ,Neurodegenerative ,Acquired Cognitive Impairment ,Dementia ,Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) ,Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias (ADRD) ,ALS ,Rare Diseases ,Brain Disorders ,Neurosciences ,Huntington's Disease ,2.1 Biological and endogenous factors ,Aetiology ,Neurological ,Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ,DNA Repeat Expansion ,Frontotemporal Dementia ,Humans ,Huntingtin Protein ,Mutation ,Whole Genome Sequencing ,American Genome Center ,FALS Sequencing Consortium ,Genomics England Research Consortium ,International ALS/FTD Genomics Consortium ,International FTD Genetics Consortium ,International LBD Genomics Consortium ,NYGC ALS Consortium ,PROSPECT Consortium ,amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ,frontotemporal dementia ,huntingtin ,repeat expansions ,whole-genome sequencing ,Psychology ,Cognitive Sciences ,Neurology & Neurosurgery - 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.
- Published
- 2021