Journal Article

Haploinsufficiency of TBK1 causes familial ALS and fronto-temporal dementia

Nordström, Ulrika, Thal, Dietmar R, Nordin, Frida, Lichtner, Peter, Feiler, Marisa S, Graf, Elisabeth, Meyer, Thomas, Ludolph, Albert C, Richter, Benjamin, Meitinger, Thomas, Müller, Kathrin, Danzer, Karin M, Volk, Alexander E, Andersen, Peter M, Weishaupt, Jochen H, Freischmidt, Axel, Millecamps, Stéphanie, Kursula, Petri, Strom, Tim M, Dorst, Johannes, Schaeffer, Veronique, Hübers, Annemarie, Boeckers, Tobias M, Marroquin, Nicolai, Wieland, Thomas, Brännström, Thomas, Desnuelle, Claude, Otto, Markus, Weydt, Patrick, Pinto, Susana, Press, Rayomond, Putz, Stefan, Ruf, Wolfgang, Soriani, Marie-Hélène, Dikic, Ivan, Winkler, Andrea S, Bernard, Emilien, Winkelman, Juliane, de Carvalho, Mamede, Molko, Nicolas

2015

Overview

The authors show that haploinsufficiency of TBK1 causes familial forms of the neurodegenerative diseases ALS and FTD. Loss of binding of a TBK1 protein interaction domain to optineurin, a protein previously linked to ALS, is sufficient to cause the disease. Both proteins regulate autophagy and inflammation. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a genetically heterogeneous neurodegenerative syndrome hallmarked by adult-onset loss of motor neurons. We performed exome sequencing of 252 familial ALS (fALS) and 827 control individuals. Gene-based rare variant analysis identified an exome-wide significant enrichment of eight loss-of-function (LoF) mutations in TBK1 (encoding TANK-binding kinase 1) in 13 fALS pedigrees. No enrichment of LoF mutations was observed in a targeted mutation screen of 1,010 sporadic ALS and 650 additional control individuals. Linkage analysis in four families gave an aggregate LOD score of 4.6. In vitro experiments confirmed the loss of expression of TBK1 LoF mutant alleles, or loss of interaction of the C-terminal TBK1 coiled-coil domain (CCD2) mutants with the TBK1 adaptor protein optineurin, which has been shown to be involved in ALS pathogenesis. We conclude that haploinsufficiency of TBK1 causes ALS and fronto-temporal dementia.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group US,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 631/208/514/1948 / 692/420/2489/144 / 692/617/375/132 / 692/617/375/365/1917/1285 / Alleles / Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis / Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - epidemiology / Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - genetics / Animal Genetics and Genomics / Behavioral Sciences / Biochemistry, Molecular Biology / Biological Techniques / Biomedicine / Cells, Cultured / Codon, Nonsense / Dementia / Development and progression / DNA Mutational Analysis / Europe - epidemiology / Exome / Female / Frontotemporal Dementia - epidemiology / Frontotemporal Dementia - genetics / Gene Frequency / Genetic aspects / Genetic Heterogeneity / Genetics / Genome-Wide Association Study / Human genetics / Humans / Life Sciences / Male / Mutation, Missense / Neurobiology / Neurosciences / Pedigree / Phosphotransferases / Properties / Protein Structure, Tertiary / Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases - biosynthesis / Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases - deficiency / Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases - genetics / Sequence Analysis, DNA / Transcription Factor TFIIIA - metabolism