Comparative Modeling of Neurodegenerative Diseases

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Numerous age-associated neurodegenerative diseases [e.g., Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Huntington's disease (HD), etc.] are associated with aggregation of disease-specific proteins. The finding that the genes encoding these proteins are mutated in some familial forms of these diseases strongly argues that these aggregating proteins cause these diseases. However, for all these diseases the relationship between protein aggregation and cellular pathology has not been clearly established. It is also unknown if the common association of protein aggregation with these diseases reflects a common underlying toxic mechanism, or, alternatively, a common downstream result of cell pathology. We will seek to identify the molecular consequences resulting from the aggregation of three different disease-associated proteins by individually expressing these proteins in a transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans model system. These molecular consequences will be determined by DNA microarray-based gene expression studies and co-immunoprecipitation analyses. Comparison of the molecular responses to expression of different disease-associated proteins will allow identification of common and disease-specific responses. We will then use the molecular genetic tools available in C. elegans to manipulate these molecular responses to determine their role in disease protein toxicity. These studies will directly test whether there is a common underlying toxic mechanism for these neurodegenerative diseases.