The Overlapping Genetics of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Dementia

Overview

Journal Front Neurosci

Date 2020 Mar 3

PMID 32116499

Citations 119

Authors

Yevgeniya A Abramzon

Pietro Fratta

Bryan J Traynor

Ruth Chia

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are two diseases that form a broad neurodegenerative continuum. Considerable effort has been made to unravel the genetics of these disorders, and, based on this work, it is now clear that ALS and FTD have a significant genetic overlap. TARDBP, SQSTM1, VCP, FUS, TBK1, CHCHD10, and most importantly C9orf72, are the critical genetic players in these neurological disorders. Discoveries of these genes have implicated autophagy, RNA regulation, and vesicle and inclusion formation as the central pathways involved in neurodegeneration. Here we provide a summary of the significant genes identified in these two intrinsically linked neurodegenerative diseases and highlight the genetic and pathological overlaps.

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