Somatic CAG repeat expansion in blood associates with biomarkers of neurodegeneration in Huntington’s disease decades before clinical motor diagnosis

Abstract Huntington’s disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease with the age at which characteristic symptoms manifest strongly influenced by inherited HTT CAG length. Somatic CAG expansion occurs throughout life and understanding the impact of somatic expansion on neurodegeneration is key to developing therapeutic targets. In 57 HD gene expanded (HDGE) individuals, ~23 years before their predicted clinical motor diagnosis, no significant decline in clinical, cognitive or neuropsychiatric function was observed over 4.5 years compared with 46 controls (false discovery rate (FDR) > 0.3). However, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) markers showed very early signs of neurodegeneration in HDGE with…

• W
  Wellcome

  Award: 223082/Z/21/Z
• CF
  CHDI Foundation
• WT
  Wellcome Trust

  Awards: 220258, 223082/Z/21/Z
• NI
  National Institute for Health and Care Research

  Award: NIHR203312
• UC
  University College London
• V
  Vetenskapsrådet
• SF
  Science for Life Laboratory
• UD
  UK Dementia Research Institute
• MR
  Medical Research Council

  Awards: NIHR203312, MC_UU_00030/14, MR/T033371/1, T033371/1, MR/T033371/1, MC_UU_00030/14
• SA
  Sahlgrenska Akademin
• NC
  NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre

  Award: NIHR203312