CAG Repeat Not Polyglutamine Length Determines Timing of Huntington’s Disease Onset

Variable, glutamine-encoding, CAA interruptions indicate that a property of the uninterrupted HTT CAG repeat sequence, distinct from the length of huntingtin's polyglutamine segment, dictates the rate at which Huntington's disease (HD) develops. The timing of onset shows no significant association with HTT cis-eQTLs but is influenced, sometimes in a sex-specific manner, by polymorphic variation at multiple DNA maintenance genes, suggesting that the special onset-determining property of the uninterrupted CAG repeat is a propensity for length instability that leads to its somatic expansion. Additional naturally occurring genetic modifier loci, defined by GWAS, may influence HD pathogenesis through other…

• P
  Pfizer
• B
  Bayer
• G
  GlaxoSmithKline
• CF
  CHDI Foundation
• TP
  Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
• FH
  F. Hoffmann-La Roche
• SO
  School of Medicine, CHA University
• HL
  H. Lundbeck A/S
• I
  Ipsen
• AO
  AOP Orphan
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Awards: NS016367, NS091161, NS082079, NS049206
• A
  Allergan
• MR
  Medical Research Council

  Awards: MR/P001629/1, MR/L010305/1, MR/P001629/1, MR/L010305/1