scholarly journals Individuals with progranulin haploinsufficiency exhibit features of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (385) ◽  
pp. eaah5642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael E. Ward ◽  
Robert Chen ◽  
Hsin-Yi Huang ◽  
Connor Ludwig ◽  
Maria Telpoukhovskaia ◽  
...  

Heterozygous mutations in the GRN gene lead to progranulin (PGRN) haploinsufficiency and cause frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a neurodegenerative syndrome of older adults. Homozygous GRN mutations, on the other hand, lead to complete PGRN loss and cause neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL), a lysosomal storage disease usually seen in children. Given that the predominant clinical and pathological features of FTD and NCL are distinct, it is controversial whether the disease mechanisms associated with complete and partial PGRN loss are similar or distinct. We show that PGRN haploinsufficiency leads to NCL-like features in humans, some occurring before dementia onset. Noninvasive retinal imaging revealed preclinical retinal lipofuscinosis in heterozygous GRN mutation carriers. Increased lipofuscinosis and intracellular NCL-like storage material also occurred in postmortem cortex of heterozygous GRN mutation carriers. Lymphoblasts from heterozygous GRN mutation carriers accumulated prominent NCL-like storage material, which could be rescued by normalizing PGRN expression. Fibroblasts from heterozygous GRN mutation carriers showed impaired lysosomal protease activity. Our findings indicate that progranulin haploinsufficiency caused accumulation of NCL-like storage material and early retinal abnormalities in humans and implicate lysosomal dysfunction as a central disease process in GRN-associated FTD and GRN-associated NCL.

2010 ◽  
Vol 428 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Su Xu ◽  
David E. Sleat ◽  
Michel Jadot ◽  
Peter Lobel

Classical late-infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (LINCL) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of children caused by mutations in TPP1, the gene encoding the lysosomal protease tripeptidyl peptidase 1. LINCL is characterized by lysosomal accumulation of storage material of which only a single protein component, subunit c of mitochondrial ATP synthase, has been well established to date. Identification of other protein constituents of the storage material could provide useful insights into the pathophysiology of disease and the natural substrates for TPP1. We have therefore initiated a proteomic analysis of storage material in brain from a LINCL mouse model. One protein, GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein), was found to be elevated in the LINCL mice compared with normal controls in both isolated storage bodies and a lysosome-enriched subcellular fraction that contains storage material. To determine whether GFAP accumulates within the lysosome in LINCL, we examined its intracellular distribution using subcellular fractionation and morphological methods. These experiments demonstrate that GFAP is not a component of the storage material in LINCL, suggesting that reports of GFAP storage in other NCLs may need to be re-examined. A number of other proteins were elevated in the storage material and/or lysosome-enriched fraction from the LINCL mice, but it remains unclear whether these proteins are true constituents of the storage material or, like GFAP, whether they associate with this material upon purification.


1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 686-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Vandevelde ◽  
R. Fatzer

A lysosomal storage disease with accumulation of periodic acid-Schiff- and Sudan black-positive autofluorescent granules in neurons occurred in one 51/2- and one 7-year-old dachshund. Ultrastructurally, the storage material consisted of membranous material arranged in stacks and fingerprint patterns. The disease was defined as ceroid-lipofuscinosis, and resembled a previously reported case in an adult dachshund.


1994 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. Edwards ◽  
R. W. Storts ◽  
J. R. Joyce ◽  
J. M. Shelton ◽  
C. S. Menzies

Two, 8-month-old Rambouillet half-sister ewes with signs of visual loss and decreased mentation were examined. Ewe No. 1 was necropsied at 10 months of age, and alter being held under observation for a further 6 months, ewe No. 2 was necropsied at 16 months of age. At that time, the ewe was blind and severely depressed. Both ewes had deposition of an autofluorescent lipopigment, identified as ceroid-lipofuscin, in neurons of the brain, spinal cord, eye, and dorsal root ganglia. The disease process was progressive and characterized by deposition of lipopigment with neuronal degeneration and severe fibrillary aslrogliosis. This progressive loss of neurons in the older ewe led to severe retinal degeneration. No pigment was observed in cells outside of the nervous system and eye. Controlled breeding studies have shown that this disease has an autosomal, recessive inheritance. The disease referred to here as juvenile-onset neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinosis of Rambouillet sheep is unlike the majority of the hereditary ceroid-lipofuscinoses that occur in human beings and animals in that only the nervous system is affected. Therefore, this disease could serve as an excellent model for the study of lipopigment deposition that affects the nervous system as a result of various disease states and during aging.


1974 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciano de Souza Queiroz ◽  
Joaquim N. da Cruz Neto ◽  
J. Lopes de Faria

Neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinosis (NCL) is a recent term, proposed for acurate designation of the late-onset types of Amaurotic Family Idiocy (AFI). Histopathology shows ubiquitous intraneuronal accumulation of lipopigments, being the most important factor for characterization of the entity at present time. Biochemical changes and pathogenesis are obscure. NCL is in contrast to the infantile type of AFI (Tay-Sachs disease), in which intraneuronal accumulation of gangliosides (sphingolipids) is due to the well known deficiency of a lysosomal enzyme. The authors report on four cases of NCL, two brothers of the late infantile (Jansky-Bielschowsky) type and a brother and a sister of the juvenile (Spielmeyer-Sjögren) type. One autopsy and three cortical biopsies revealed moderate to severe distention of the neurons by lipopigment, with nerve cell loss, gliosis and cerebral atrophy. Lipopigment was also increased in liver, heart and spleen. The patients were the first in Brazilian literature in whom the storage material was identified as lipopigment by histochemical methods. A brief summary of the clinical features of NCL is presented, and relevant problems are discussed, concerning interpretation of the nature of the storage material, and significance of the disease for gerontological research.


Author(s):  
Dikran S. Horoupian ◽  
R. T. Ross

SummaryA case of pigment variant of Kufs’ disease is presented. The nature of the extra-neuronal pigment is discussed. Despite some of the histochemical discrepancies that existed between this pigment and the material that had accumulated in the nerve cells, they seemed to he ultrastructurally related. The hepatocytes contained numerous heterogeneous cytosomes, some of which resembled the storage material of Niemann-Pick’s disease.Clinically the syndrome may present with progressive ataxia, spontaneous and reflex, coarse myoclonic jerks and eventual mental deterioration as well as epilepsy and muscle wasting. The pigment variant cannot be distinguished from Kufs’ disease except pathologically.


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (19) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasir H. Qureshi ◽  
Penelope Baez ◽  
Christiane Reitz

ABSTRACT Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL) is one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorders of early life, Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder of midlife, while Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder of late life. While they are phenotypically distinct, recent studies suggest that they share a biological pathway, retromer-dependent endosomal trafficking. A retromer is a multimodular protein assembly critical for sorting and trafficking cargo out of the endosome. As a lysosomal storage disease, all 13 of NCL’s causative genes affect endolysosomal function, and at least four have been directly linked to retromer. PD has several known causative genes, with one directly linked to retromer and others causing endolysosomal dysfunction. AD has over 25 causative genes/risk factors, with several of them linked to retromer or endosomal trafficking dysfunction. In this article, we summarize the emerging evidence on the association of genes causing NCL with retromer function and endosomal trafficking, review the recent evidence linking NCL genes to AD, and discuss how NCL, AD, and PD converge on a shared molecular pathway. We also discuss this pathway’s role in microglia and neurons, cell populations which are critical to proper brain homeostasis and whose dysfunction plays a key role in neurodegeneration.


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