ORCID Profile
0000-0002-4859-0826
Current Organisation
Centro Cardiologico Monzino
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Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-08-2017
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-017-09320-Z
Abstract: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a neurodegenerative disorder predominantly affecting the frontal and temporal lobes. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on FTD identified only a few risk loci. One of the possible explanations is that FTD is clinically, pathologically, and genetically heterogeneous. An important open question is to what extent epigenetic factors contribute to FTD and whether these factors vary between FTD clinical subgroup. We compared the DNA-methylation levels of FTD cases (n = 128), and of FTD cases with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (FTD-ALS n = 7) to those of unaffected controls (n = 193), which resulted in 14 and 224 candidate genes, respectively. Cluster analysis revealed significant class separation of FTD-ALS from controls. We could further specify genes with increased susceptibility for abnormal gene-transcript behavior by jointly analyzing DNA-methylation levels with the presence of mutations in a GWAS FTD-cohort. For FTD-ALS, this resulted in 9 potential candidate genes, whereas for FTD we detected 1 candidate gene ( ELP2 ). Independent validation-sets confirmed the genes DLG1, METTL7A, KIAA1147, IGHMBP2, PCNX, UBTD2, WDR35 , and ELP2/SLC39A6 among others. We could furthermore demonstrate that genes harboring mutations and/or displaying differential DNA-methylation, are involved in common pathways, and may therefore be critical for neurodegeneration in both FTD and FTD-ALS.
Publisher: BMJ
Date: 29-11-2016
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-01-2020
DOI: 10.1007/S00401-019-02107-8
Abstract: The IPDGC (The International Parkinson Disease Genomics Consortium) and EADB (Alzheimer Disease European DNA biobank) are listed correctly as an author to the article, however, they were incorrectly listed more than once.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 09-01-2018
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 05-04-2017
DOI: 10.1093/BRAIN/AWX066
Abstract: Genome-wide association studies in frontotemporal dementia showed limited success in identifying associated loci. This is possibly due to small s le size, allelic heterogeneity, small effect sizes of single genetic variants, and the necessity to statistically correct for testing millions of genetic variants. To overcome these issues, we performed gene-based association studies on 3348 clinically identified frontotemporal dementia cases and 9390 controls (discovery, replication and joint-cohort analyses). We report association of APOE and TOMM40 with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, and ARHGAP35 and SERPINA1 with progressive non-fluent aphasia. Further, we found the ɛ2 and ɛ4 alleles of APOE harbouring protective and risk increasing effects, respectively, in clinical subtypes of frontotemporal dementia against neurologically normal controls. The APOE-locus association with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia indicates its potential risk-increasing role across different neurodegenerative diseases, whereas the novel genetic associations of ARHGAP35 and SERPINA1 with progressive non-fluent aphasia point towards a potential role of the stress-signalling pathway in its pathophysiology.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-04-2018
DOI: 10.1038/S41398-017-0049-7
Abstract: Neurodegenerative diseases likely share common underlying pathobiology. Although prior work has identified susceptibility loci associated with various dementias, few, if any, studies have systematically evaluated shared genetic risk across several neurodegenerative diseases. Using genome-wide association data from large studies (total n = 82,337 cases and controls), we utilized a previously validated approach to identify genetic overlap and reveal common pathways between progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In addition to the MAPT H1 haplotype, we identified a variant near the chemokine receptor CXCR4 that was jointly associated with increased risk for PSP and PD. Using bioinformatics tools, we found strong physical interactions between CXCR4 and four microglia related genes, namely CXCL12 , TLR2, RALB, and CCR5 . Evaluating gene expression from post-mortem brain tissue, we found that expression of CXCR4 and microglial genes functionally related to CXCR4 was dysregulated across a number of neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore, in a mouse model of tauopathy, expression of CXCR4 and functionally associated genes was significantly altered in regions of the mouse brain that accumulate neurofibrillary tangles most robustly. Beyond MAPT , we show dysregulation of CXCR4 expression in PSP, PD, and FTD brains, and mouse models of tau pathology. Our multi-modal findings suggest that abnormal signaling across a ‘network’ of microglial genes may contribute to neurodegeneration and may have potential implications for clinical trials targeting immune dysfunction in patients with neurodegenerative diseases.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2018
DOI: 10.1038/GIM.2017.218
Publisher: Hindawi Limited
Date: 10-2008
DOI: 10.1002/HUMU.20792
Abstract: Oral-facial-digital type I (OFDI) syndrome is a male-lethal X-linked dominant developmental disorder belonging to the heterogeneous group of oral-facial-digital syndromes (OFDS). OFDI is characterized by malformations of the face, oral cavity, and digits. Central nervous system (CNS) abnormalities and cystic kidney disease can also be part of this condition. This rare genetic disorder is due to mutations in the OFD1 gene that encodes a centrosome/basal body protein necessary for primary cilium assembly and for left-right axis determination, thus ascribing OFDI to the growing number of disorders associated to ciliary dysfunction. We now report a mutation analysis study in a cohort of 100 unrelated affected in iduals collected worldwide. Putative disease-causing mutations were identified in 81 patients (81%). We describe 67 different mutations, 64 of which represent novel mutations, including 36 frameshift, nine missense, 11 splice-site, and 11 nonsense mutations. Most of them concentrate in exons 3, 8, 9, 12, 13, and 16, suggesting that these exons may represent mutational hotspots. Phenotypic characterization of the patients provided a better definition of the clinical features of OFDI syndrome. Our results indicate that renal cystic disease is present in 60% of cases >18 years of age. Genotype-phenotype correlation did not reveal significant associations apart for the high-arched/cleft palate most frequently associated to missense and splice-site mutations. Our results contribute to further expand our knowledge on the molecular basis of OFDI syndrome.
Location: Italy
Location: Italy
Location: Italy
No related grants have been discovered for valeria novelli.