Browsing by Author "Cheshire, William P."

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    Common Variants Near ZIC1 and ZIC4 in Autopsy-Confirmed Multiple System Atrophy
    (Wiley, 2022-10) Hopfner, Franziska; Tietz, Anja K.; Ruf, Viktoria C.; Ross, Owen A.; Koga, Shunsuke; Dickson, Dennis; Aguzzi, Adriano; Attems, Johannes; Beach, Thomas; Beller, Allison; Cheshire, William P.; van Deerlin, Vivianna; Desplats, Paula; Deuschl, Günther; Duyckaerts, Charles; Ellinghaus, David; Evsyukov, Valentin; Flanagan, Margaret Ellen; Franke, Andre; Frosch, Matthew P.; Gearing, Marla; Gelpi, Ellen; van Gerpen, Jay A.; Ghetti, Bernardino; Glass, Jonathan D.; Grinberg, Lea T.; Halliday, Glenda; Helbig, Ingo; Höllerhage, Matthias; Huitinga, Inge; Irwin, David John; Keene, Dirk C.; Kovacs, Gabor G.; Lee, Edward B.; Levin, Johannes; Martí, Maria J.; Mackenzie, Ian; McKeith, Ian; Mclean, Catriona; Mollenhauer, Brit; Neumann, Manuela; Newell, Kathy L.; Pantelyat, Alex; Pendziwiat, Manuela; Peters, Annette; Porcel, Laura Molina; Rabano, Alberto; Matěj, Radoslav; Rajput, Alex; Rajput, Ali; Reimann, Regina; Scott, William K.; Seeley , William; Selvackadunco, Sashika; Simuni, Tanya; Stadelmann, Christine; Svenningsson, Per; Thomas, Alan; Trenkwalder, Claudia; Troakes, Claire; Trojanowski, John Q.; Uitti, Ryan J.; White, Charles L.; Wszolek, Zbigniew K.; Xie, Tao; Ximelis, Teresa; Justo, Yebenes; Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Consortium; Müller, Ulrich; Schellenberg, Gerard D.; Herms, Jochen; Kuhlenbäumer, Gregor; Höglinger, Günter; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background: Multiple System Atrophy is a rare neurodegenerative disease with alpha-synuclein aggregation in glial cytoplasmic inclusions and either predominant olivopontocerebellar atrophy or striatonigral degeneration, leading to dysautonomia, parkinsonism, and cerebellar ataxia. One prior genome-wide association study in mainly clinically diagnosed patients with Multiple System Atrophy failed to identify genetic variants predisposing for the disease. Objective: Since the clinical diagnosis of Multiple System Atrophy yields a high rate of misdiagnosis when compared to the neuropathological gold standard, we studied only autopsy-confirmed cases. Methods: We studied common genetic variations in Multiple System Atrophy cases (N = 731) and controls (N = 2898). Results: The most strongly disease-associated markers were rs16859966 on chromosome 3, rs7013955 on chromosome 8, and rs116607983 on chromosome 4 with P-values below 5 × 10−6, all of which were supported by at least one additional genotyped and several imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms. The genes closest to the chromosome 3 locus are ZIC1 and ZIC4 encoding the zinc finger proteins of cerebellum 1 and 4 (ZIC1 and ZIC4). Interpretation: Since mutations of ZIC1 and ZIC4 and paraneoplastic autoantibodies directed against ZIC4 are associated with severe cerebellar dysfunction, we conducted immunohistochemical analyses in brain tissue of the frontal cortex and the cerebellum from 24 Multiple System Atrophy patients. Strong immunohistochemical expression of ZIC4 was detected in a subset of neurons of the dentate nucleus in all healthy controls and in patients with striatonigral degeneration, whereas ZIC4-immunoreactive neurons were significantly reduced inpatients with olivopontocerebellar atrophy. These findings point to a potential ZIC4-mediated vulnerability of neurons in Multiple System Atrophy.
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    Frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17)
    (Springer Nature, 2006-08-09) Wszolek, Zbigniew K.; Tsuboi, Yoshio; Ghetti, Bernardino; Pickering-Brown, Stuart; Baba, Yasuhiko; Cheshire, William P.; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
    Frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder, which has three cardinal features: behavioral and personality changes, cognitive impairment, and motor symptoms. FTDP-17 was defined during the International Consensus Conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1996. The prevalence and incidence remain unknown but FTDP-17 is an extremely rare condition. It is caused by mutations in the tau gene, which encodes a microtubule-binding protein. Over 100 families with 38 different mutations in the tau gene have been identified worldwide. The phenotype of FTDP-17 varies not only between families carrying different mutations but also between and within families carrying the same mutations. The pathogenetic mechanisms underlying the disorder are thought to be related to the altered proportion of tau isoforms or to the ability of tau to bind microtubules and to promote microtubule assembly. Definitive diagnosis of FTDP-17 requires a combination of characteristic clinical and pathological features and molecular genetic analysis. Genetic counseling should be offered to affected and at-risk individuals; for most subtypes, penetrance is incomplete. Currently, treatment for FTDP-17 is only symptomatic and supportive. The prognosis and rate of the disease's progression vary considerably among individual patients and genetic kindreds, ranging from life expectancies of several months to several years, and, in exceptional cases, as long as two decades.