Publications by authors named "Darren Christy"

TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) and Fused in Sarcoma/Translocated in Sarcoma (FUS) are ribonucleoproteins associated with pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Under physiological conditions, TDP-43 and FUS are predominantly localized in the nucleus, where they participate in transcriptional regulation, RNA splicing and metabolism. In disease, however, they are typically mislocalized to the cytoplasm where they form aggregated inclusions.

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Article Synopsis
  • A genome-wide association study (GWAS) on multiple system atrophy (MSA) was conducted using data from various populations including Japanese, Korean, Chinese, European, and North American samples.
  • The study identified a significant genetic variant, rs2303744 on chromosome 19, which showed strong association with MSA in East Asian populations and was also significant in European/North American samples despite differences in allele frequencies.
  • The associated variant leads to an amino acid change in the cPLA2γ enzyme, resulting in reduced enzymatic activity that could disrupt biological processes involving membrane phospholipids and α-synuclein, potentially contributing to the disease's development.
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Background And Purpose: The Faroe Islands are a geographically isolated population in the North Atlantic with a similar prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and all-cause dementia as other European populations. However, the genetic risk underlying AD and other dementia susceptibility has yet to be elucidated.

Methods: Forty-nine single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped in 174 patients with AD and other dementias and 159 healthy controls.

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STAC3 is a soluble protein essential for skeletal muscle excitation-contraction (EC) coupling. Through its tandem SH3 domains, it interacts with the cytosolic II-III loop of the skeletal muscle voltage-gated calcium channel. STAC3 is the target for a mutation (W284S) that causes Native American myopathy, but multiple other sequence variants have been reported.

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Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are secreted by myriad cells in culture and also by unicellular organisms, and their identification in mammalian fluids suggests that EV release also occurs at the organism level. However, although it is clearly important to better understand EVs' roles in organismal biology, EVs in solid tissues have received little attention. Here, we modified a protocol for EV isolation from primary neural cell culture to collect EVs from frozen whole murine and human neural tissues by serial centrifugation and purification on a sucrose gradient.

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