ALS genetics: gains, losses, and implications for future therapies

G Kim, O Gautier, E Tassoni-Tsuchida, XR Ma… - Neuron, 2020 - cell.com
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder caused by the loss
of motor neurons from the brain and spinal cord. The ALS community has made remarkable …

The overlapping genetics of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia

YA Abramzon, P Fratta, BJ Traynor… - Frontiers in neuroscience, 2020 - frontiersin.org
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are two diseases
that form a broad neurodegenerative continuum. Considerable effort has been made to …

Generation of functional human 3D cortico-motor assembloids

J Andersen, O Revah, Y Miura, N Thom, ND Amin… - Cell, 2020 - cell.com
Neurons in the cerebral cortex connect through descending pathways to hindbrain and
spinal cord to activate muscle and generate movement. Although components of this …

C9orf72 suppresses systemic and neural inflammation induced by gut bacteria

A Burberry, MF Wells, F Limone, A Couto, KS Smith… - Nature, 2020 - nature.com
A hexanucleotide-repeat expansion in C9ORF72 is the most common genetic variant that
contributes to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia,. The C9ORF72 …

Reduced C9ORF72 function exacerbates gain of toxicity from ALS/FTD-causing repeat expansion in C9orf72

Q Zhu, J Jiang, TF Gendron, M McAlonis-Downes… - Nature …, 2020 - nature.com
Hexanucleotide expansions in C9orf72, which encodes a predicted guanine exchange
factor, are the most frequent genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and …

Molecular and cellular mechanisms affected in ALS

L Le Gall, E Anakor, O Connolly… - Journal of personalized …, 2020 - mdpi.com
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a terminal late-onset condition characterized by the
loss of upper and lower motor neurons. Mutations in more than 30 genes are associated to …

RNA toxicity in non‐coding repeat expansion disorders

B Swinnen, W Robberecht, L Van Den Bosch - The EMBO journal, 2020 - embopress.org
Several neurodegenerative disorders like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and
spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) are caused by non‐coding nucleotide repeat expansions …

Reduced autophagy upon C9ORF72 loss synergizes with dipeptide repeat protein toxicity in G4C2 repeat expansion disorders

M Boivin, V Pfister, A Gaucherot, F Ruffenach… - The EMBO …, 2020 - embopress.org
Expansion of G4C2 repeats within the C9ORF72 gene is the most common cause of
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Such repeats lead …

Mutant C9orf72 human iPSC‐derived astrocytes cause non‐cell autonomous motor neuron pathophysiology

C Zhao, AC Devlin, AK Chouhan, BT Selvaraj… - Glia, 2020 - Wiley Online Library
Mutations in C9orf72 are the most common genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(ALS). Accumulating evidence implicates astrocytes as important non‐cell autonomous …

Generation of inner ear hair cells by direct lineage conversion of primary somatic cells

L Menendez, T Trecek, S Gopalakrishnan, L Tao… - elife, 2020 - elifesciences.org
The mechanoreceptive sensory hair cells in the inner ear are selectively vulnerable to
numerous genetic and environmental insults. In mammals, hair cells lack regenerative …