Dataset Information

Tau filaments from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism-dementia complex adopt the CTE fold.

ABSTRACT: The amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism-dementia complex (ALS/PDC) of the island of Guam and the Kii peninsula of Japan is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of unknown cause that is characterized by the presence of abundant filamentous tau inclusions in brains and spinal cords. Here, we used electron cryo-microscopy to determine the structures of tau filaments from the cerebral cortex of three cases of ALS/PDC from Guam and eight cases from Kii, as well as from the spinal cord of two of the Guam cases. Tau filaments had the chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) fold, with variable amounts of Type I and Type II filaments. Paired helical tau filaments were also found in three Kii cases and tau filaments with the corticobasal degeneration fold in one Kii case. We identified a new Type III CTE tau filament, where protofilaments pack against each other in an antiparallel fashion. ALS/PDC is the third known tauopathy with CTE-type filaments and abundant tau inclusions in cortical layers II/III, the others being CTE and subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. Because these tauopathies are believed to have environmental causes, our findings support the hypothesis that ALS/PDC is caused by exogenous factors.

SUBMITTER: Qi C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10743375 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Tau filaments from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism-dementia complex adopt the CTE fold.

Qi Chao C Verheijen Bert M BM Kokubo Yasumasa Y Shi Yang Y Tetter Stephan S Murzin Alexey G AG Nakahara Asa A Morimoto Satoru S Vermulst Marc M Sasaki Ryogen R Aronica Eleonora E Hirokawa Yoshifumi Y Oyanagi Kiyomitsu K Kakita Akiyoshi A Ryskeldi-Falcon Benjamin B Yoshida Mari M Hasegawa Masato M Scheres Sjors H W SHW Goedert Michel M

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20231215 51

The amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism-dementia complex (ALS/PDC) of the island of Guam and the Kii peninsula of Japan is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of unknown cause that is characterized by the presence of abundant filamentous tau inclusions in brains and spinal cords. Here, we used electron cryo-microscopy to determine the structures of tau filaments from the cerebral cortex of three cases of ALS/PDC from Guam and eight cases from Kii, as well as from the spinal cord of two of t ...[more]

PMID: 38100415

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Project description:Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia are two progressive, adult onset neurodegenerative diseases, caused by the cell death of motor neurons in the motor cortex and spinal cord and cortical neurons in the frontal and temporal lobes, respectively. Whilst these have previously appeared to be quite distinct disorders, in terms of areas affected and clinical symptoms, identification of cognitive dysfunction as a component of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), with some patients presenting with both ALS and FTD, overlapping features of neuropathology and the ongoing discoveries that a significant proportion of the genes underlying the familial forms of the disease are the same, has led to ALS and FTD being described as a disease spectrum. Many of these genes encode proteins in common biological pathways including RNA processing, autophagy, ubiquitin proteasome system, unfolded protein response and intracellular trafficking. This article provides an overview of the ALS-FTD genes before summarizing other known ALS and FTD causing genes where mutations have been found primarily in patients of one disease and rarely in the other. In discussing these genes, the review highlights the similarity of biological pathways in which the encoded proteins function and the interactions that occur between these proteins, whilst recognizing the distinctions of MAPT-related FTD and SOD1-related ALS. However, mutations in all of these genes result in similar pathology including protein aggregation and neuroinflammation, highlighting that multiple different mechanisms lead to common downstream effects and neuronal loss. Next generation sequencing has had a significant impact on the identification of genes associated with both diseases, and has also highlighted the widening clinical phenotypes associated with variants in these ALS and FTD genes. It is hoped that the large sequencing initiatives currently underway in ALS and FTD will begin to uncover why different diseases are associated with mutations within a single gene, especially as a personalized medicine approach to therapy, based on a patient's genetics, approaches the clinic.

Dataset Information

Tau filaments from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism-dementia complex adopt the CTE fold.

Publications

Tau filaments from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism-dementia complex adopt the CTE fold.

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