Neuron
Volume 40, Issue 1, 25 September 2003, Pages 41-52
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Article
Neuropathogenic Forms of Huntingtin and Androgen Receptor Inhibit Fast Axonal Transport

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Abstract

Huntington's and Kennedy's disease are autosomal dominant neurodegenerative diseases caused by pathogenic expansion of polyglutamine tracts. Expansion of glutamine repeats must in some way confer a gain of pathological function that disrupts an essential cellular process and leads to loss of affected neurons. Association of huntingtin with vesicular structures raised the possibility that axonal transport might be altered. Here we show that polypeptides containing expanded polyglutamine tracts, but not normal N-terminal huntingtin or androgen receptor, directly inhibit both fast axonal transport in isolated axoplasm and elongation of neuritic processes in intact cells. Effects were greater with truncated polypeptides and occurred without detectable morphological aggregates.

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8

These authors contributed equally to this work.

9

Present address: Center for Basic Neuroscience, UT Southwestern, Dallas, Texas 75390.

10

Present address: Athersys, Inc., Cleveland Functional Genomics, Cleveland, Ohio 44115.