Summary: Mutations in the NEK1 gene appear to be present in 3 percent of those with familial ALS, a new study reports.
Source: UMass Medical School.
Largest-ever study of inherited ALS identifies new ALS gene, NEK1.
Variations in a gene with multiple functions in neurons are present in approximately 3 percent of all cases of ALS in North American and European populations, both sporadic and familial, making it one of the most common genetic causes of the disease, according to a paper published in Nature Genetics. Led by John Landers, PhD, professor of neurology at UMass Medical School and Jan Veldink, PhD, at University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands, the research was supported by The ALS Association through Project MinE, an international collaboration for gene discovery in ALS, and funded through ALS Ice Bucket donations.
ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects neurons in the brain and the spinal cord. Eventually, people with ALS lose the ability to initiate and control muscle movement, which often leads to total paralysis and death within two to five years of diagnosis. While 10 percent of ALS is familial, meaning it’s genetic, the other 90 percent of ALS cases are considered sporadic, or without a family history. However, it’s very likely that genetics contribute, directly or indirectly, to a much larger percentage of ALS cases.
The ALS Association announced funding for Project MinE, an international effort to sequence the genomes of at least 15,000 people with ALS, in October 2014, which established the U.S. arm of the initiative with Dr. Landers’ research efforts. Project MinE was the brainchild of entrepreneur Bernard Muller, and Robbert Jan Stuit, both of whom have ALS. They saw an opportunity to expedite genetic understanding of the disease after a tour of the Research ALS Center in the Netherlands where thousands of DNA samples are not being used because it was too expensive to do the research the center wanted to do.
“This study was only possible because of the collaboration of all of the scientists involved,” said Landers. “It is a prime example of the success that can come from the combined efforts of so many people, all dedicated to finding the causes of ALS. This kind of collaborative study is, more and more, where the field is headed.”
The study involved contributions from more than 80 researchers in 11 countries, and was the largest-ever study of familial ALS. Exome data from the familial ALS cases in the study have been added to the ALS Variant Server, a publicly available database funded by The ALS Association.
“The discovery of NEK1 highlights the value of big data in ALS research,” said Lucie Bruijn, PhD, MBA, of The ALS Association. “The sophisticated gene analysis that led to this finding was only possible because of the large number of ALS samples available. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge enabled The ALS Association to invest in Project MinE’s work to create large biorepositories of ALS biosamples that are designed to allow exactly this kind of research and to produce exactly this kind of result.”
The new gene, called NEK1, was discovered through a genome-wide search for ALS risk genes in more than 1,000 ALS families, and was independently found through different means in an isolated population in the Netherlands. Further analysis in more than 13,000 sporadic ALS individuals compared to controls again revealed the overrepresentation of variants in the same gene. The variations discovered in the gene sequence are predicted to lead to a loss of function of the gene. NEK1 is known to have multiple roles in neurons, including maintenance of the cytoskeleton that gives the neuron its shape and promotes transport within the neuron. In addition, NEK1 has roles in regulating the membrane of the mitochondrion, which supplies energy to neurons, and in repairing DNA. Disruption of each of these functions through other means has been linked to increased risk of ALS.
Understanding the role of NEK1 in disease will provide an important new target for therapy development. The ALS Association is currently funding Landers and Catherine Lutz, PhD, senior research scientist at the Jackson Laboratories in Bar Harbour, Maine, to develop novel mouse models to better understand the consequences of the loss of the protein’s function for the ALS disease process. They will provide rapid access to these models for the broader ALS research community as soon as they are generated. These tools are important for ALS drug development.
Source: James Fessenden – UMass Medical School
Image Source: This NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Abstract for “NEK1 variants confer susceptibility to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” by Kevin P Kenna, Perry T C van Doormaal, Annelot M Dekker, Nicola Ticozzi, Brendan J Kenna, Frank P Diekstra, Wouter van Rheenen, Kristel R van Eijk, Ashley R Jones, Pamela Keagle, Aleksey Shatunov, William Sproviero, Bradley N Smith, Michael A van Es, Simon D Topp, Aoife Kenna, Jack W Miller, Claudia Fallini, Cinzia Tiloca, Russell L McLaughlin, Caroline Vance, Claire Troakes, Claudia Colombrita, Gabriele Mora, Andrea Calvo, Federico Verde, Safa Al-Sarraj, Andrew King, Daniela Calini, Jacqueline de Belleroche, Frank Baas, Anneke J van der Kooi, Marianne de Visser, Anneloor L M A ten Asbroek, Peter C Sapp, Diane McKenna-Yasek, Meraida Polak, Seneshaw Asress, José Luis Muñoz-Blanco, Tim M Strom, Thomas Meitinger, Karen E Morrison, SLAGEN Consortium, Sandra D’Alfonso, Letizia Mazzini, Giacomo P Comi, Roberto Del Bo, Mauro Ceroni, Stella Gagliardi, Giorgia Querin, Cinzia Bertolin, Viviana Pensato, Barbara Castellotti, Stefania Corti, Cristina Cereda, Lucia Corrado, Gianni Sorarù, Giuseppe Lauria, Kelly L Williams, P Nigel Leigh, Garth A Nicholson, Ian P Blair, Claire S Leblond, Patrick A Dion, Guy A Rouleau, Hardev Pall, Pamela J Shaw, Martin R Turner, Kevin Talbot, Franco Taroni, Kevin B Boylan, Marka Van Blitterswijk, Rosa Rademakers, Jesús Esteban-Pérez, Alberto García-Redondo, Phillip Van Damme, Wim Robberecht, Adriano Chio, Cinzia Gellera, Carsten Drepper, Michael Sendtner, Antonia Ratti, Jonathan D Glass, Jesús S Mora, Nazli A Basak, Orla Hardiman, Albert C Ludolph, Peter M Andersen, Jochen H Weishaupt, Robert H Brown Jr, Ammar Al-Chalabi, Vincenzo Silani, Christopher E Shaw, Leonard H van den Berg, Jan H Veldink and John E Landers in Nature Genetics. Published online July 25 2016 doi:10.1038/ng.3626
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]UMass Medical School. “New Gene Variants Present in 3 Percent of All ALS Patients.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 25 July 2016.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/als-gene-variants-4731/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]UMass Medical School. (2016, July 25). New Gene Variants Present in 3 Percent of All ALS Patients. NeuroscienceNew. Retrieved July 25, 2016 from https://neurosciencenews.com/als-gene-variants-4731/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]UMass Medical School. “New Gene Variants Present in 3 Percent of All ALS Patients.” https://neurosciencenews.com/als-gene-variants-4731/ (accessed July 25, 2016).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]
Abstract
NEK1 variants confer susceptibility to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
To identify genetic factors contributing to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), we conducted whole-exome analyses of 1,022 index familial ALS (FALS) cases and 7,315 controls. In a new screening strategy, we performed gene-burden analyses trained with established ALS genes and identified a significant association between loss-of-function (LOF) NEK1 variants and FALS risk. Independently, autozygosity mapping for an isolated community in the Netherlands identified a NEK1 p.Arg261His variant as a candidate risk factor. Replication analyses of sporadic ALS (SALS) cases and independent control cohorts confirmed significant disease association for both p.Arg261His (10,589 samples analyzed) and NEK1 LOF variants (3,362 samples analyzed). In total, we observed NEK1 risk variants in nearly 3% of ALS cases. NEK1 has been linked to several cellular functions, including cilia formation, DNA-damage response, microtubule stability, neuronal morphology and axonal polarity. Our results provide new and important insights into ALS etiopathogenesis and genetic etiology.
“NEK1 variants confer susceptibility to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” by Kevin P Kenna, Perry T C van Doormaal, Annelot M Dekker, Nicola Ticozzi, Brendan J Kenna, Frank P Diekstra, Wouter van Rheenen, Kristel R van Eijk, Ashley R Jones, Pamela Keagle, Aleksey Shatunov, William Sproviero, Bradley N Smith, Michael A van Es, Simon D Topp, Aoife Kenna, Jack W Miller, Claudia Fallini, Cinzia Tiloca, Russell L McLaughlin, Caroline Vance, Claire Troakes, Claudia Colombrita, Gabriele Mora, Andrea Calvo, Federico Verde, Safa Al-Sarraj, Andrew King, Daniela Calini, Jacqueline de Belleroche, Frank Baas, Anneke J van der Kooi, Marianne de Visser, Anneloor L M A ten Asbroek, Peter C Sapp, Diane McKenna-Yasek, Meraida Polak, Seneshaw Asress, José Luis Muñoz-Blanco, Tim M Strom, Thomas Meitinger, Karen E Morrison, SLAGEN Consortium, Sandra D’Alfonso, Letizia Mazzini, Giacomo P Comi, Roberto Del Bo, Mauro Ceroni, Stella Gagliardi, Giorgia Querin, Cinzia Bertolin, Viviana Pensato, Barbara Castellotti, Stefania Corti, Cristina Cereda, Lucia Corrado, Gianni Sorarù, Giuseppe Lauria, Kelly L Williams, P Nigel Leigh, Garth A Nicholson, Ian P Blair, Claire S Leblond, Patrick A Dion, Guy A Rouleau, Hardev Pall, Pamela J Shaw, Martin R Turner, Kevin Talbot, Franco Taroni, Kevin B Boylan, Marka Van Blitterswijk, Rosa Rademakers, Jesús Esteban-Pérez, Alberto García-Redondo, Phillip Van Damme, Wim Robberecht, Adriano Chio, Cinzia Gellera, Carsten Drepper, Michael Sendtner, Antonia Ratti, Jonathan D Glass, Jesús S Mora, Nazli A Basak, Orla Hardiman, Albert C Ludolph, Peter M Andersen, Jochen H Weishaupt, Robert H Brown Jr, Ammar Al-Chalabi, Vincenzo Silani, Christopher E Shaw, Leonard H van den Berg, Jan H Veldink and John E Landers in Nature Genetics. Published online July 25 2016 doi:10.1038/ng.3626
