A new study led by the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) has identified a new protein as a potential therapeutic target for frontotemporal dementia, a type of early-onset dementia.

Dementia is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects more than 944,000 people in the UK.

Frontotemporal dementia occurs from the degeneration of the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, which control emotions, personality and behaviour, along with speech.

Most neurodegenerative diseases involve proteins aggregating into filaments known as amyloids. When identified, researchers can target these proteins for diagnostic tests and treatments.

However, in around 10% of frontotemporal dementia cases, researchers had to identify the TAF15 protein.

Published in Nature, MRC LMB researchers successfully pinpointed the aggregated structures of the protein using cutting-edge cryo-electron microscopy to study the brains of four patients who had this type of early-onset dementia.

The FUS protein is already known to be associated with frontotemporal dementia. However, researchers were surprised to identify the TAF15 protein in the four brains.

Additionally, this type of early-onset dementia can sometimes be seen in people living with motor neurone disease (MND), a condition that affects the brain and nerves.

Researchers studied two of the individuals who donated their brains who had signs of both diseases and identified the same aggregated structure of TAF15 in brain regions associated with MND.

The identification of these proteins and the basic structures of these filaments in this form of early-onset dementia could lead to the development of early diagnostic tests and drugs to combat their formation.

Dr Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon, study lead at the MRC LMB, said: “Now that we know the key protein and its structure, we have the potential to develop tools to screen for these abnormal protein aggregates in hundreds of patient samples to test how widespread they are” and “start to target it for the diagnosis and therapy of this type of frontotemporal dementia”.

The study was funded by the MRC, along with Alzheimer’s Research UK, the US National Institute of Health, the Alzheimer’s Society, the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Levehulme Trust.

https://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/study_identifies_new_amyloid-forming_protein_linked_to_early-onset_dementia_1504678