Written by Brenda Toscano Marquez Edited by Marija Cvetanovic
Insoluble clumps of mutated ataxin-1 capture essential proteins and trigger the creation of toxic reactive oxygen species.
All proteins produced by our cells consist of long chains of amino acids that are coiled and bent into a particular 3D structure. Changes in that structure can cause serious issues in a cell’s function, sometimes resulting in disease. Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) is thought to be the result of one such structural change. The cause of SCA1 is a mutation that makes a repeating section of the ATXIN1 gene abnormally long. This repeated genetic code, “CAG,” is what encodes the amino acid glutamine in the resulting ataxin-1 protein. Therefore, in the cells of patients with SCA1, the Ataxin-1 protein is produced with an expanded string of glutamines, one after the other. This polyglutamine expansion makes the mutated ataxin-1 protein form clumps in many different types of cells – most notably, though, in the cells most affected in SCA1: the brain’s Purkinje cells.
Recent research suggests that these clumps, or “aggregates,” not only take up space in the cell, but that the act of ataxin-1 proteins clustering together might even be beneficial in early stages of disease (it’s possible that the proteins wreak less havoc when they’re in large clumps, rather than all floating around individually). However, another line of research suggests that ataxin-1 aggregates might also be toxic, triggering signals that lead to the cell’s death. As such, how exactly these aggregates affect the deterioration of cells has remained an important question in SCA1 research.
n a search for answers, an international team led by Stamatia Laidou designed a unique cell model of SCA1 to track the development of ataxin-1 aggregates. Their study, published in a recent paper, made use of normal human mesenchymal stem cells that had been engineered to make a modified version of the ataxin-1 protein. In these cells, ataxin-1 was produced not only with the SCA1-causing expansion, but also with a marker protein attached to its end. This marker, known as “green fluorescent protein” (GFP), is used extensively in biological research because it glows under fluorescent light.

Using this to their advantage, Laidou and her team used a fluorescent microscope to follow the formation of ataxin-1 aggregates over the course of 10 days. The abnormal protein first started accumulating in the nucleus as small dots. As time went on, these dots started blending together, increasing in size. By ten days, the ataxin-1 aggregates had grown even more, forming a doughnut-shaped structure that occupied most of the cell’s nucleus – a crucial structure that houses the cell’s genetic information. These results were intriguing, since the accumulation of normal, non-expanded Ataxin-1 protein does not result in an aggregate with a doughnut shape.
Continue reading “Mutated ataxin-1 protein forms harmful, doughnut-shaped aggregates that are not easily destroyed”
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