Cited by 577Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ResearchRNA Research and SplicingAlzheimer's disease research and treatments

TDP-43 represses cryptic exon inclusion in the FTD-ALS gene UNC13A

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Ma, X. Rosa, Prudencio, Mercedes, Koike, Yuka, Vatsavayai, Sarat C., Kim, Garam, Harbinski, Fred, Briner, Adam, Rodriguez, Caitlin M. +27 more·2022·Nature

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

A hallmark pathological feature of the neurodegenerative diseases amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the depletion of RNA-binding protein TDP-43 from the nucleus of neurons in the brain and spinal cord 1 . A major function of TDP-43 is as a repressor of cryptic exon inclusion during RNA splicing 2–4 . Single nucleotide polymorphisms in UNC13A are among the strongest hits associated with FTD and ALS in human genome-wide association studies 5,6 , but how those variants increase risk for disease is unknown. Here we show that TDP-43 represses a cryptic exon-splicing event in UNC13A . Loss of TDP-43 from the nucleus in human brain, neuronal cell lines and motor neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells resulted in the inclusion of a cryptic exon in UNC13A mRNA and reduced UNC13A protein expression. The top variants associated with FTD or ALS risk in humans are located in the intron harbouring the cryptic exon, and we show that they increase UNC13A cryptic exon splicing in the face of TDP-43 dysfunction. Together, our data provide a direct functional link between one of the strongest genetic risk factors for FTD and ALS ( UNC13A genetic variants), and loss of TDP-43 function.

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Authors
Ma, X. R., Prudencio, M., Koike, Y., Vatsavayai, S. C., Kim, G., Harbinski, F., Briner, A., Rodriguez, C. M., Guo, C., Akiyama, T., Schmidt, H. B., Cummings, B. B., Wyatt, D. W., Kurylo, K., Miller, G., Mekhoubad, S., Sallee, N., Mekonnen, G., Ganser, L., Rubien, J. D., Jansen-West, K., Cook, C. N., Pickles, S., Oskarsson, B., Graff-Radford, N. R., Boeve, B. F., Knopman, D. S., Petersen, R. C., Dickson, D. W., Shorter, J., Myong, S., Green, E. M., Seeley, W. W., Petrucelli, L., & Gitler, A. D.
Affiliations
  • Stanford Medicine (US)
  • Mayo Clinic (US)
  • University of California, San Francisco (US)
  • Maze (United States) (US)
  • The University of Queensland (AU)
  • Johns Hopkins University (US)
  • University of Pennsylvania (US)
  • Mayo Clinic in Florida (US)
Corresponding author
  • Petrucelli, Leonard
  • Gitler, Aaron D.
Venue
Nature
Published
2022-02-23
Volume
603
Issue
7899
Pages
124-130
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W4213441627
Cited by
574
References
53
Citations by year
2026: 126 · 2025: 151 · 2024: 121 · 2023: 107 · 2022: 57 · 2021: 11 · 2019: 1
FWCI
57.66
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • ALS Association
  • BrightFocus Foundation (A2020279F)
  • Takeda Science Foundation
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • Target ALS
  • Rainwater Charitable Foundation
  • National Institutes of Health (W81XWH)
  • University of California, San Francisco (P30AG062422, P01AG019724)
  • Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University
  • Stanford Research Computing Center, Stanford University
  • National Institute on Aging (RF1AG064690, R01AG063780, U01AG057195, U01AG006786, RF1AG071326, T32AG047126, U19AG063911, P01AG019724, P30AG062422, P30AG062677)
  • National Human Genome Research Institute (T32HG000044)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (F32GM139268, T32GM007231)
  • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (F32NS116208, P01NS084974, R01NS104437, RF1NS120992, RF1NS113636, R35NS097273, R35NS097263, U54NS123743)
  • Robert Packard Center for ALS Research, Johns Hopkins University
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA Research and Splicing
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
Keywords
TDP-43, UNC13A, RNA splicing, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia, single nucleotide polymorphisms, genetic risk factors, RNA-binding proteins, motor neurons, intronic variants, induced pluripotent stem cells
MeSH terms
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, DNA-Binding Proteins, Exons, Humans, Motor Neurons, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Genome-Wide Association Study, Frontotemporal Dementia

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