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Tuesday, July 03, 2018
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Seminar: Perturbed TDP-43 autoregulation in novel mouse and human knock-in models of ALS-FTD, Dr Jemeen Sreedharan, Post Doctoral Fellow in Neurodegeneration Research and Honorary Consultant Neurologist, King鈥檚 College HospitalMBU (A151), Medical School Building, Gibbet HillAbstract: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis–frontotemporal dementia (ALS-FTD) constitutes a devastating disease spectrum characterized by 43-kDa TAR DNA-binding protein (TDP-43) pathology. Understanding how TDP-43 contributes to neurodegeneration will help direct therapeutic efforts. We created a TDP-43 knock-in mouse with a human-equivalent mutation in the endogenous mouse Tardbp gene. TDP-43Q331K mice demonstrate cognitive dysfunction and a paucity of parvalbumin interneurons. Critically, TDP-43 autoregulation is perturbed, leading to a gain of TDP-43 function and altered splicing of Mapt, another pivotal dementia-associated gene. Furthermore, a new approach to stratify transcriptomic data by phenotype in differentially affected mutant mice revealed 471 changes linked with improved behavior. These changes included downregulation of two known modifiers of neurodegeneration, Atxn2 and Arid4a, and upregulation of myelination and translation genes. Finally, human cells with the TDP-43Q331K mutation demonstrate TDP-43 misregulation (unpublished). With one base change in Tardbp/TARDBP, these studies identify TDP-43 misregulation as a pathogenic mechanism that may underpin ALS- FTD and exploit phenotypic heterogeneity to yield candidate suppressors of neurodegenerative disease. |