Publications by authors named "K M Braunstein"

Although loss of TAR DNA-binding protein 43 kDa (TDP-43) splicing repression is well documented in postmortem tissues of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), whether this abnormality occurs during early-stage disease remains unresolved. Cryptic exon inclusion reflects loss of function of TDP-43, and thus detection of proteins containing cryptic exon-encoded neoepitopes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or blood could reveal the earliest stages of TDP-43 dysregulation in patients. Here we use a newly characterized monoclonal antibody specific to a TDP-43-dependent cryptic epitope (encoded by the cryptic exon found in HDGFL2) to show that loss of TDP-43 splicing repression occurs in ALS-FTD, including in presymptomatic C9orf72 mutation carriers.

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Loss of TAR DNA-binding protein 43 kDa (TDP-43) splicing repression is well-documented in postmortem tissues of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), yet whether this abnormality occurs during early-stage disease remains unresolved. Cryptic exon inclusion reflects functional loss of TDP-43, and thus detection of cryptic exon-encoded peptides in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) could reveal the earliest stages of TDP-43 dysregulation in patients. Here, we use a newly characterized monoclonal antibody specific to a TDP-43-dependent cryptic epitope (encoded by the cryptic exon found in ) to show that loss of TDP-43 splicing repression occurs in -associated ALS, including pre-symptomatic mutation carriers.

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Background: Amongst risk alleles associated with late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD), those that converged on the regulation of microglia activity have emerged as central to disease progression. Yet, how canonical amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau pathologies regulate microglia subtypes during the progression of AD remains poorly understood.

Methods: We use single-cell RNA-sequencing to profile microglia subtypes from mice exhibiting both Aβ and tau pathologies across disease progression.

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Sporadic inclusion body myositis (IBM) is the most common acquired muscle disease in adults over age 50, yet it remains unclear whether the disease is primarily driven by T cell–mediated autoimmunity. IBM muscle biopsies display nuclear clearance and cytoplasmic aggregation of TDP-43 in muscle cells, a pathologic finding observed initially in neurodegenerative diseases, where nuclear loss of TDP-43 in neurons causes aberrant RNA splicing. Here, we show that loss of TDP-43–mediated splicing repression, as determined by inclusion of cryptic exons, occurs in skeletal muscle of subjects with IBM.

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