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Cryptic Amyloidogenic Elements in the 3' UTRs of Neurofilament Genes Trigger Axonal Neuropathy

Rebelo, AP; Abrams, AJ; Cottenie, E; Horga, A; Gonzalez, M; Bis, DM; Sanchez-Mejias, A; ... Zuchner, S; + view all (2016) Cryptic Amyloidogenic Elements in the 3' UTRs of Neurofilament Genes Trigger Axonal Neuropathy. The American Journal of Human Genetics , 98 (4) pp. 597-614. 10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.02.022. Green open access

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Abstract

Abnormal protein aggregation is observed in an expanding number of neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we describe a mechanism for intracellular toxic protein aggregation induced by an unusual mutation event in families affected by axonal neuropathy. These families carry distinct frameshift variants in NEFH (neurofilament heavy), leading to a loss of the terminating codon and translation of the 3' UTR into an extra 40 amino acids. In silico aggregation prediction suggested the terminal 20 residues of the altered NEFH to be amyloidogenic, which we confirmed experimentally by serial deletion analysis. The presence of this amyloidogenic motif fused to NEFH caused prominent and toxic protein aggregates in transfected cells and disrupted motor neurons in zebrafish. We identified a similar aggregation-inducing mechanism in NEFL (neurofilament light) and FUS (fused in sarcoma), in which mutations are known to cause aggregation in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, respectively. In summary, we present a protein-aggregation-triggering mechanism that should be taken into consideration during the evaluation of stop-loss variants.

Type: Article
Title: Cryptic Amyloidogenic Elements in the 3' UTRs of Neurofilament Genes Trigger Axonal Neuropathy
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.02.022
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.02.022
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.
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
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1481244
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