Imaging the molecular pathways of neurodegeneration : New pathologies of SCA7

Abstract: Spinocerebellar Ataxia type 7 (SCA7) is a genetic neurodegenerative disease with lethal outcome that affects the cerebellum and retina of patients. This thesis focuses on characterising molecular pathological pathways that cause toxicity and cell death in SCA7. Using primarily an inducible cell model and patient fibroblasts I found that the three RNA binding proteins FUS, TDP-43 and TIA1 are co-sequestered into aggregates formed by the SCA7 causing protein, ATXN7. Consequently I investigated the cellular functions in which these proteins have important roles. I found that FUS’ ability to regulate mRNAs is altered due to mislocalisation, DNA damage is increased, and that stress granules (SGs) are induced in a SCA7 cell model and in patient fibroblasts. Surprisingly, I also found that ATXN7 was present within SGs, and that SGs exhibited an altered shape upon induction of mutant ATXN7. I also participated in developing a microscopy-based method for monitoring chromatin organisation in live cells called FRIC. FRIC is able to detect even subtle changes to peripheral chromatin organisation, and since ATXN7 is a subunit of the transcription regulational complex SAGA, we used FRIC to investigate the effect of mutant ATXN7 on peripheral chromatin organisation. While we found no evidence that mutant ATXN7 affected peripheral chromatin organisation, the inner nuclear membrane protein Samp1 was found to be important for normal chromatin organisation in the nuclear periphery. Finally, I characterised the effect of mutant ATXN7 expression on the nuclear lamina, nuclear pore complexes, and nucleocytoplasmic transport. I found that although key transport factors such as Ran and Importin ß intermittently co-localised with ATXN7 aggregates, there were no apparent defects in nucleocytoplasmic protein import or nuclear envelope integrity. In summation, my investigations resulted in new findings that may be built upon to find key targets for treating SCA7 patients.