Rinsho Shinkeigaku (Clinical Neurology)

The 49th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Neurology

Molecular and genetic analysis of spinocerebellar ataxia type 10 (SCA10)

Tohru Matsuura, M.D.

Division of Neurogenetics and Bioinformatics, Center for Neurological Diseases and Cancer, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 10 (SCA10) is a dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disease caused by expansion of the ATTCT pentanucleotide repeat in intron 9 of a novel gene, ATXN10, on chromosome 22q13.3. It is clinically characterized by progressive ataxia, seizures, and anticipation, which can vary within and between families. The length of the expanded ATTCT repeats is highly unstable on paternal transmission and shows a variable degree of somatic and germline instabilty, revealing complex SCA10 genetic mechanisms. How this untranslated ATTCT expansion leads to neurodegeneration has been still controversial. Growing number of evidence indicates a gain-of-function RNA mechanism, similar to the myotonic dystrophies caused by non-coding CTG or CCTG repeat expansions.
Full Text of this Article in Japanese PDF (319K)

(CLINICA NEUROL, 48: 823|825, 2008)
key words: spinocerebellar ataxia type 10, ATTCT repeat, instability, non-coding repeat expansion disorders, RNA disease mechanism

(Received: 15-May-08)