New gene identified for familial motor neuron disease
Press release: 21 September 2011
Families suffering from a history of motor neuron disease have helped an international scientific team locate a new gene linked to the incurable disease.
The investigators studied a large group of Finnish patients and a family from Gwent, South Wales who have lost many relatives to early onset motor neuron disease (MND) and the neurodegenerative disease frontotemporal dementia, also known as Pick's disease. The team, including scientists from Cardiff University, The University of Manchester and UCL (University College London), discovered that both the Gwent family and the Finnish patients share a changed genetic segment on the short arm of chromosome 9.
Five thousand people in the UK have MND, and well-known sufferers have included David Niven and Don Revie. The disease has recently been diagnosed in the South African rugby player Joost van der Westhuizen. The disease is progressive and fatal, with an average survival from onset of symptoms between two and five years.
Scientists have been studying chromosome 9 for some years but until now have not been able to pinpoint the gene that causes motor neuron disease and frontotemporal dementia. The new discovery identifies the critical gene change as an expanded sequence of DNA repeats; it is currently unclear why some people with the mutation get frontotemporal dementia while others get MND. Unaffected people carry up to 20 DNA repeats in a gene called C9orf72 whereas affected patients with motor neuron disease may carry hundreds of repeats. The gene change affects a gene segment outside of the normal protein coding portion of the gene (affecting non-coding RNA).
The role of this DNA expansion is currently unknown but it probably disrupts multiple mechanisms in motor nerve cells (motor neurons), leading to their premature failure and motor neuron cell death. The new discovery will lead to new blood tests for families with a history of this condition, and, potentially, to new avenues for treating the incurable disease.
The genetic variation was difficult to identify because it lies outside the protein coding regions that are normally studied in human genetic work. Although this variation was identified first in Finnish and Welsh patients it appears to occur in many different populations and accounts for the disease in up to one third of patients with a family history of motor neuron disease.
The Motor Neurone Disease Association and the ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) Association funded the study, together with the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust.
Dr Huw Morris, based at the MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics, Cardiff University and the Royal Gwent Hospital, said: "This work is the culmination of many years work by doctors and scientists studying this condition and it is due in large part to the courage and tenacity of many patients facing motor neuron disease, particularly the Gwent kindred and the Finnish cohort. Although this work is the end of our long hunt for this gene, it is the beginning of our search for therapies based on this discovery that can stop this brutal disease in its tracks."
Professor John Hardy, based at the UCL Institute of Neurology, commented: "This is a very exciting finding which not only explains a significant proportion of motor neuron disease and frontal dementia but also puts RNA biology at the centre of the disease causation."
Professor Stuart Pickering-Brown, from The University of Manchester, added: "This is the most common genetic cause of motor neuron disease and frontotemporal dementia identified to date and opens up important new avenues of research."
The international collaboration was led by Dr Bryan Traynor, of the National Institutes of Health in the USA, with colleagues from Cardiff University, UCL, The University of Manchester, Amsterdam and Finland. Their findings have just been published in the leading international journal Neuron. The same findings were independently made by a group at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida, led by Dr Rosa Rademakers and published in the same journal.
Dr Brian Dickie, director of research development, at the Motor Neurone Disease Association, said: "Discoveries in genetics are driving the ever-increasing momentum of motor neuron disease research. Chromosome 9 has been a prime suspect in motor neuron disease for some time but pinning down the precise genetic factor involved had proved elusive. The discovery of this rogue gene has the potential to significantly advance our understanding of motor neuron disease, helping scientists to home in on the pivotal cellular changes underlying all forms of the disease."
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Notes to editors
- The full study, 'A hexanucleotide repeat expansion in C9ORF72 is the cause of chromosome 9p21-linked of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-frontotemporal dementia,' is published online in Neuron on September 21, 2011 .
- The collaboration: led by Bryan Traynor (National Institutes of Health) with Huw Morris (Cardiff University), John Hardy (University College London), Stuart Pickering-Brown (The University of Manchester), Peter Heutink (VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam) and Pentti Tienari (University of Helsinki).
- Cardiff University is recognised in independent government assessments as one of Britain's leading teaching and research universities and is a member of the Russell Group of the UK's most research intensive universities. Among its academic staff are two Nobel Laureates, including the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Medicine, University President Professor Sir Martin Evans. Founded by Royal Charter in 1883, today the University combines impressive modern facilities and a dynamic approach to teaching and research. The University's breadth of expertise in research and research-led teaching encompasses: the humanities; the natural, physical, health, life and social sciences; engineering and technology; preparation for a wide range of professions; and a longstanding commitment to lifelong learning. Three major new Research Institutes, offering radical new approaches to neurosciences and mental health, cancer stem cells and sustainable places were announced by the University in 2010.
- The University of Manchester, a member of the Russell Group, is one of the largest and most popular universities in the UK. It has 22 academic schools and hundreds of specialist research groups undertaking pioneering multi-disciplinary teaching and research of worldwide significance. According to the results of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, The University of Manchester is now one of the country’s major research institutions, rated third in the UK in terms of 'research power'. The University had an annual income of £788 million in 2009/10.
- About UCL (University College London): Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. UCL is among the world's top universities, as reflected by performance in a range of international rankings and tables. Alumni include Marie Stopes, Jonathan Dimbleby, Lord Woolf, Alexander Graham Bell, and members of the band Coldplay. UCL currently has over 13,000 undergraduate and 9,000 postgraduate students. Its annual income is over £700 million.
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