diagnostics Review Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Lobar Degenerations: Similarities in Genetic Background Eva Parobkova 1 and Radoslav Matej 1,2,3,* 1 Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and Thomayer University Hospital, 14059 Prague, Czech Republic;
[email protected] 2 Department of Pathology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, and General University Hospital, 14059 Prague, Czech Republic 3 Department of Pathology, Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, and University Hospital Kralovske Vinohrady, 14059 Prague, Czech Republic * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating, uniformly lethal progressive degen- erative disorder of motor neurons that overlaps with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) clinically, morphologically, and genetically. Although many distinct mutations in various genes are known to cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, it remains poorly understood how they selectively impact motor neuron biology and whether they converge on common pathways to cause neuronal degeneration. Many of the gene mutations are in proteins that share similar functions. They can be grouped into those associated with cell axon dynamics and those associated with cellular phagocytic machinery, namely protein aggregation and metabolism, apoptosis, and intracellular nucleic acid transport. Analysis of pathways implicated by mutant ALS genes has provided new insights into the pathogenesis of both familial forms of ALS (fALS) and sporadic forms (sALS), although, regrettably, this has not yet yielded definitive treatments. Many genes play an important role, with TARDBP, Citation: Parobkova, E.; Matej, R. SQSTM1, VCP, FUS, TBK1, CHCHD10, and most importantly, C9orf72 being critical genetic players Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and in these neurological disorders.