Open AccessReduced Telomere Length in Neurodegenerative Disorders May Suggest Shared Biology
Author(s) -
Lakshmi Narayanan Kota,
Srikala Bharath,
Meera Purushottam,
Nagaraj S. Moily,
Palanimuthu Thangaraju Sivakumar,
Mathew Varghese,
Pramod Kumar Pal,
Sanjeev Jain
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences/the journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.964
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1545-7222
pISSN - 0895-0172
DOI - 10.1176/appi.neuropsych.13100240
Subject(s) - telomere , ataxia telangiectasia , dementia , senescence , biology , gene , disease , copy number variation , genetics , medicine , pathology , dna damage , dna , genome
Early cell death is a feature of neurodegenerative disorders. Telomere shortening is related to premature cellular senescence and could be a marker for cellular pathology in neurological diseases. Relative telomere length in dementia (N=70), Huntington's disease (N=35), ataxia telangiectasia (N=9), and age-group matched control samples (N=105) was measured as relative telomere copy/single copy gene ratios. Individuals with Huntington's disease had the lowest relative telomere copy/single copy gene ratio (0.21), followed by ataxia telangiectasia (0.31) and dementia (0.48). The younger control group had the highest relative telomere copy/single copy gene ratio (1.07). The reduced telomere length could be indicative of shared biological pathways across these disorders contributing to cellular senescence.