UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

DNA repair in the trinucleotide repeat disorders

Jones, L; Houlden, H; Tabrizi, SJ; (2017) DNA repair in the trinucleotide repeat disorders. The Lancet Neurology , 16 (1) pp. 88-96. 10.1016/S1474-4422(16)30350-7. Green open access

[thumbnail of Accepted manuscript]
Preview
Text (Accepted manuscript)
Jones_DNA repair in the trinucleotide repeat disorders.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License : See the attached licence file.

Download (731kB) | Preview
[thumbnail of Figure 1]
Preview
Text (Figure 1)
Tabrizi_jones et al Fig 1.pdf

Download (127kB) | Preview

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Inherited diseases caused by unstable repeated DNA sequences are rare, but together represent a substantial cause of morbidity. Trinucleotide repeat disorders are severe, usually life-shortening, neurological disorders caused by nucleotide expansions, and most have no disease-modifying treatments. Longer repeat expansions are associated with genetic anticipation (ie, earlier disease onset in successive generations), although the differences in age at onset are not entirely accounted for by repeat length. Such phenotypic variation within disorders implies the existence of additional modifying factors in pathways that can potentially be modulated to treat disease. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS: A genome-wide association study detected genetic modifiers of age at onset in Huntington's disease. Similar findings were seen in the spinocerebellar ataxias, indicating an association between DNA damage-response and repair pathways and the age at onset of disease. These studies also suggest that a common genetic mechanism modulates age at onset across polyglutamine diseases and could extend to other repeat expansion disorders. Genetic defects in DNA repair underlie other neurodegenerative disorders (eg, ataxia-telangiectasia), and DNA double-strand breaks are crucial to the modulation of early gene expression, which provides a mechanistic link between DNA repair and neurodegeneration. Mismatch and base-excision repair are important in the somatic expansion of repeated sequences in mouse models of trinucleotide repeat disorders, and somatic expansion of the expanded CAG tract in HTT correlates with age at onset of Huntington's disease and other trinucleotide repeat disorders. WHERE NEXT?: To understand the common genetic architecture of trinucleotide repeat disorders and any further genetic susceptibilities in individual disorders, genetic analysis with increased numbers of variants and sample sizes is needed, followed by sequencing approaches to define the phenotype-modifying variants. The findings must then be translated into cell biology analyses to elucidate the mechanisms through which the genetic variants operate. Genes that have roles in the DNA damage response could underpin a common DNA repeat-based mechanism and provide new therapeutic targets (and hence therapeutics) in multiple trinucleotide repeat disorders.

Type: Article
Title: DNA repair in the trinucleotide repeat disorders
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/S1474-4422(16)30350-7
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(16)30350-7
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2016. This manuscript version is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Non-derivative 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This licence allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for personal and non-commercial use providing author and publisher attribution is clearly stated. Further details about CC BY licences are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Access may be initially restricted by the publisher.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Department of Neuromuscular Diseases
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Neurodegenerative Diseases
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1534545
Downloads since deposit
0Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item