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Hatton C, Ghanem SS, Koss DJ, Abdi IY, Gibbons E, Guerreiro R, Bras J, Walker L, Gelpi E, Heywood W, Outeiro TF, Attems J, McFarland R, Forsyth R, El-Agnaf OM, Erskine D. Prion-like α-synuclein pathology in the brain of infants with Krabbe disease. Brain 2022; 145:1257-1263. [PMID: 34999780 PMCID: PMC9128812 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awac002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2021] [Revised: 11/22/2021] [Accepted: 12/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Krabbe disease is an infantile neurodegenerative disorder resulting from pathogenic variants in the GALC gene that causes accumulation of the toxic sphingolipid psychosine. GALC variants are also associated with Lewy body diseases, an umbrella term for age-associated neurodegenerative diseases in which the protein α-synuclein aggregates into Lewy bodies. To explore whether α-synuclein in Krabbe disease has pathological similarities to that in Lewy body disease, we performed an observational post-mortem study of Krabbe disease brain tissue (n = 4) compared to infant controls (n = 4) and identified widespread accumulations of α-synuclein. To determine whether α-synuclein in Krabbe disease brain displayed disease-associated pathogenic properties we evaluated its seeding capacity using the real-time quaking-induced conversion assay in two cases for which frozen tissue was available and strikingly identified aggregation into fibrils similar to those observed in Lewy body disease, confirming the prion-like capacity of Krabbe disease-derived α-synuclein. These observations constitute the first report of prion-like α-synuclein in the brain tissue of infants and challenge the putative view that α-synuclein pathology is merely an age-associated phenomenon, instead suggesting it results from alterations to biological pathways, such as sphingolipid metabolism. Our findings have important implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying Lewy body formation in Lewy body disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Hatton
- Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research, Claremont Road, Newcastle NE2 4AA, UK
- Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE2 4AA, UK
| | - Simona S. Ghanem
- Neurological Disorders Research Center, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Qatar Foundation, Doha 34110, Qatar
| | - David J. Koss
- Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE2 4AA, UK
| | - Ilham Y. Abdi
- Neurological Disorders Research Center, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Qatar Foundation, Doha 34110, Qatar
| | - Elizabeth Gibbons
- Department of Neurodegenerative Science, Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA
| | - Rita Guerreiro
- Department of Neurodegenerative Science, Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA
- Division of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA
| | - Jose Bras
- Department of Neurodegenerative Science, Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA
- Division of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA
| | | | - Lauren Walker
- Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE2 4AA, UK
| | - Ellen Gelpi
- Division of Neuropathology and Neurochemistry, Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Wendy Heywood
- UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London WC1N 1EH, UK
| | - Tiago F. Outeiro
- Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE2 4AA, UK
- Department of Experimental Neurodegeneration, Center for Biostructural Imaging of Neurodegeneration, University Medical Center Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
- Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, 37075 Göttingen, Germany
- Scientific employee with an honorary contract at Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE), 37075 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Johannes Attems
- Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE2 4AA, UK
| | - Robert McFarland
- Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research, Claremont Road, Newcastle NE2 4AA, UK
- Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE2 4AA, UK
- Department of Paediatric Neurology, Great North Children’s Hospital, Newcastle NE1 4LP, UK
| | - Rob Forsyth
- Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE2 4AA, UK
- Department of Paediatric Neurology, Great North Children’s Hospital, Newcastle NE1 4LP, UK
| | - Omar M. El-Agnaf
- Neurological Disorders Research Center, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Qatar Foundation, Doha 34110, Qatar
| | - Daniel Erskine
- Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research, Claremont Road, Newcastle NE2 4AA, UK
- Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE2 4AA, UK
- Correspondence to: Dr Daniel Erskine Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research Newcastle University, Claremont Place Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4AA, UK E-mail:
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