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The Src/c-Abl pathway is a potential therapeutic target in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Imamura, K; Izumi, Y; Watanabe, A; Tsukita, K; Woltjen, K; Yamamoto, T; Hotta, A; ... Inoue, H; + view all (2017) The Src/c-Abl pathway is a potential therapeutic target in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Science Translational Medicine , 9 (391) , Article eaaf 3962. 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf3962. Green open access

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Wray_Izumi_PSC_based_drug_repositioning_identifies_the_Src_c_Abl_pathway.pdf - Accepted Version

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Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal disease causing progressive loss of motor neurons, still has no effective treatment. We developed a phenotypic screen to repurpose existing drugs using ALS motor neuron survival as readout. Motor neurons were generated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from an ALS patient with a mutation in superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1). Results of the screen showed that more than half of the hits targeted the Src/c-Abl signaling pathway. Src/c-Abl inhibitors increased survival of ALS iPSC-derived motor neurons in vitro. Knockdown of Src or c-Abl with small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) also rescued ALS motor neuron degeneration. One of the hits, bosutinib, boosted autophagy, reduced the amount of misfolded mutant SOD1 protein, and attenuated altered expression of mitochondrial genes. Bosutinib also increased survival in vitro of ALS iPSC-derived motor neurons from patients with sporadic ALS or other forms of familial ALS caused by mutations in TAR DNA binding protein (TDP-43) or repeat expansions in C9orf72. Furthermore, bosutinib treatment modestly extended survival of a mouse model of ALS with an SOD1 mutation, suggesting that Src/c-Abl may be a potentially useful target for developing new drugs to treat ALS.

Type: Article
Title: The Src/c-Abl pathway is a potential therapeutic target in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf3962
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf3962
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Neurodegenerative Diseases
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10058826
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