title: Reduced telomere length in neurodegenerative disorders may suggest shared biology.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: From the Dept. of Psychiatry (LNK, SB, MP, NSM, PTS, MV, SJ) and the Dept. of Neurology (PKP), National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Lakshmi Narayanan
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Kota
authors.forename: Srikala
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bharath
authors.forename: Meera
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Purushottam
authors.forename: Nagaraj S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Moily
authors.forename: Palanimuthu Thangaraju
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Sivakumar
authors.forename: Mathew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Varghese
authors.forename: Pramod Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Pal
authors.forename: Sanjeev
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jain
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D003704:Dementia / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics*; D016615:Telomere; D059506:Telomere Shortening