We here report a new molecule DoNA binding to a CAG repeat RNA. DoNA is a dimer of the NA molecule that we previously reported. NA binds with high affinity to a CAG repeat DNA but not significantly to a CAG repeat RNA. Binding analyses using SPR and CSI-TOF MS indicated a significant increase in the affinity of DoNA to a single stranded CAG repeat RNA compared to NA. Systematic investigation of the RNA motifs bound by DoNA using hairpin RNA models revealed that DoNA binds to the CAG units at overhang and terminal positions, and notably, it binds to the structurally flexible internal and hairpin loop region.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bmc.2023.117580 | DOI Listing |
Nat Med
January 2025
Huntington's Disease Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK.
Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease with the age at which characteristic symptoms manifest strongly influenced by inherited HTT CAG length. Somatic CAG expansion occurs throughout life and understanding the impact of somatic expansion on neurodegeneration is key to developing therapeutic targets. In 57 HD gene expanded (HDGE) individuals, ~23 years before their predicted clinical motor diagnosis, no significant decline in clinical, cognitive or neuropsychiatric function was observed over 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCell
January 2025
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Electronic address:
In Huntington's disease (HD), striatal projection neurons (SPNs) degenerate during midlife; the core biological question involves how the disease-causing DNA repeat (CAG) in the huntingtin (HTT) gene leads to neurodegeneration after decades of biological latency. We developed a single-cell method for measuring this repeat's length alongside genome-wide RNA expression. We found that the HTT CAG repeat expands somatically from 40-45 to 100-500+ CAGs in SPNs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurogenetics
January 2025
Neuropharmacology Division, Department of Pharmacology, ISF College of Pharmacy, Moga, Punjab, 142001, India.
Huntington's disease (HDs) is a fatal, autosomal dominant, and hereditary neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive motor dysfunction, cognitive decline, and psychiatric disturbances. HD is well linked to mutation in the HTT gene, which leads to an abnormal expansion of trinucleotide CAG repeats, resulting in the production of the mHTT protein and responsible for abnormally long poly-Q tract. These abnormal proteins disrupt cellular processes, including neuroinflammation, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and mitochondrial dysfunction, ultimately leading to selective neuronal loss in the brain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Neurol Neurosci Rep
January 2025
Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Hospital and Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Purpose Of Review: Autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxias, also known as spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs), are genetically and clinically diverse neurodegenerative disorders characterized by progressive cerebellar dysfunction. Despite advances in sequencing technologies, a large proportion of patients with SCA still lack a definitive genetic diagnosis. The advent of advanced bioinformatic tools and emerging genomics technologies, such as long-read sequencing, offers an unparalleled opportunity to close the diagnostic gap for hereditary ataxias.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Neurol
January 2025
LUMC Department of Neurology, Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Background And Objectives: The total functioning capacity (TFC) assessment has been integral to Huntington's disease (HD) research and clinical trials, measuring disease stage and progression. This study investigates the natural progression of function in HD, focusing on changes in TFC scores related to age and CAG-repeat length, and evaluates TFC's strengths and weaknesses in longitudinal studies.
Methods: Using Enroll-HD platform's clinical dataset version 5, including Registry-3, we analysed data from 21,079 participants, with 16,083 having an expanded CAG repeat.
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