Discovery could lead to new, targeted therapeutics for frontotemporal dementia.
An international team of researchers including experts at the Indiana University School of Medicine has identified a protein found in the brains of people with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), discovering a new target for potential treatments for the disease.
Understanding Frontotemporal Dementia
According to the
Bernardino Ghetti, MD is a Distinguished Professor at the IU School of Medicine and has been studying neurodegenerative dementias for 50 years. As a lead neuropathologist on the project, Ghetti and his team studied the protein aggregates from brains donated by four people who had frontotemporal dementia and motor weakness. Together with their colleagues in the UK, IU researchers used neuropathologic and molecular techniques and cutting-edge cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) at atomic resolution to discover the presence of the amyloid filaments made of TAF15 protein in multiple brain areas. However, it is important to note that TAF15 amyloid affects also nerve cells of the motor system.
Important Breakthrough
“This discovery represents an important breakthrough that recognizes TAF15 as a potential target for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic strategies toward a lesser-known form of frontotemporal lobar degeneration associated with frontotemporal dementia,” Ghetti said.
Reference: “TAF15 amyloid filaments in frontotemporal lobar degeneration” by Stephan Tetter, Diana Arseni, Alexey G. Murzin, Yazead Buhidma, Sew Y. Peak-Chew, Holly J. Garringer, Kathy L. Newell, Ruben Vidal, Liana G. Apostolova, Tammaryn Lashley, Bernardino Ghetti and Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon, 6 December 2023, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06801-2
Additional authors on the study are the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology’s Stephan Tetter, Diana Arseni, Alexey G. Murzin, Sew Y. Peak-Chew and Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon; the University College London’s Yazead Buhidma and Tammaryn Lashley; and the IU School of Medicine’s Holly J. Garringer, Kathy L. Newell, Ruben Vidal and Liana G. Apostolova.
The study was in part funded by the NIH’s National Institute on Aging and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.