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Recurrent patterns of widespread neuronal genomic damage shared by major neurodegenerative disorders

Zhou, Z.; Luquette, L. J.; Dong, G.; Kim, J.; Ku, J.; Kim, K.; Bae, M.; Shao, D. D.; Sahile, B.; Miller, M. B.; Huang, A. Y.; Park, P. J.; Lagier-Tourenne, C.; Lee, E. A.; Walsh, C. A.

2025-03-05 genomics
10.1101/2025.03.03.641186 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and Alzheimers disease (AD) are common neurodegenerative disorders for which the mechanisms driving neuronal death remain unclear. Single-cell whole-genome sequencing of 429 neurons from three C9ORF72 ALS, six C9ORF72 FTD, seven AD, and twenty-three neurotypical control brains revealed significantly increased burdens in somatic single nucleotide variant (sSNV) and insertion/deletion (sIndel) in all three disease conditions. Mutational signature analysis identified a disease-associated sSNV signature suggestive of oxidative damage and an sIndel process, affecting 28% of ALS, 79% of FTD, and 65% of AD neurons but only 5% of control neurons (diseased vs. control: OR=31.20, p = 2.35x10-10). Disease-associated sIndels were primarily two-basepair deletions resembling signature ID4, which was previously linked to topoisomerase 1 (TOP1)-mediated mutagenesis. Duplex sequencing confirmed the presence of sIndels and identified similar single-strand events as potential precursor lesions. TOP1-associated sIndel mutagenesis and resulting genome instability may thus represent a common mechanism of neurodegeneration.

Published in Cell (predicted rank #18) · training set

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