Translational study of molecular pathogenesis on dystonia and developing its novel therapeutic interventions

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Dystonia is about one fourth as frequent as parkinsonism, and is not a rare disorder. It incapacitates sufferers to be bed-ridden if advanced. We for the first time found the gene(TAF-1) causing a hereditary dystonia DYT3, which is now being reported in Japan. It is therefore important to search for its pathogenesis and therapy. We previously found selective loss of neurons in striosome in the striatum of the basal ganglia in DYT3 autopsied brains. In this research, we found that NTAF-1, a neuron-specific isoform of TAF-1 is mainly localized in the striosome, which links the molecular pathogenesis with pathological and clinical findings.We also reported clinical usefulness of zolpidem for treating dystonia in general. We developed a screening test for DYT3 dystonia, and tried a surgical treatment on a DYT3 patient with excellent outcomes.