Isolated inclusion body myopathy caused linked hnRNPA1 ... · hnRNPA2B1 genes were identified in patients with MSP/amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),2 which were later designated
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Isolated inclusion body myopathy causedby a multisystem proteinopathyndashlinkedhnRNPA1 mutation
ABSTRACT
Objective To identify the genetic cause of isolated inclusion body myopathy (IBM) with autosomaldominant inheritance in 2 families
Methods Genetic investigations were performed using whole-exome and Sanger sequencing ofthe heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A1 gene (hnRNPA1) The clinical and pathologicfeatures of patients in the 2 families were evaluated with neurologic examinations muscle imag-ing and muscle biopsy
Results We identified a missense pD314N mutation in hnRNPA1 which is also known to causefamilial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 2 families with IBM The affected individuals developedmuscle weakness in their 40s which slowly progressed toward a limb-girdle pattern Furtherevaluation of the affected individuals revealed no apparent motor neuron dysfunction cognitiveimpairment or bone abnormality The muscle pathology was compatible with IBM lacking appar-ent neurogenic change and inflammation Multiple immunohistochemical analyses revealedthe cytoplasmic aggregation of hnRNPA1 in close association with autophagosomes and myonu-clei Furthermore the aberrant accumulation was characterized by coaggregation withubiquitin sequestome-1p62 valosin-containing proteinp97 and a variety of RNA-bindingproteins (RBPs)
Conclusions The present study expands the clinical phenotype of hnRNPA1-linked multisystemproteinopathy Mutations in hnRNPA1 and possibly hnRNPA2B1 will be responsible for isolatedIBM with a pure muscular phenotype Although the mechanisms underlying the selective skeletalmuscle involvement remain to be elucidated the immunohistochemical results suggest a broadsequestration of RBPs by the mutated hnRNPA1 Neurol Genet 20151e23 doi 101212
NXG0000000000000023
GLOSSARYALS5 amyotrophic lateral sclerosisCK5 creatine kinase FUSTLS5 fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma hnRNP5heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein IBM 5 inclusion body myopathyMSP 5multisystem proteinopathy PDB 5 Pagetdisease of bone PrLD 5 prion-like domain RBP 5 RNA-binding protein SNV 5 single nucleotide variant SQSTM1p62 5sequestome-1p62 TDP-435 transactive response DNA binding protein 43 kDa Ub5 ubiquitin VCP5 valosin-containingprotein
Multisystem proteinopathy (MSP) is an inherited pleiotropic degenerative disorder that can affectmuscle bone andor the nervous system MSP is genetically heterogeneous and has been associ-ated with mutations in VCP1 hnRNPA12 hnRNPA2B12 SQSTM1p623 and MATR3 genes45
Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) are ubiquitously expressed RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) that are involved in messenger RNA metabolism and transport In2013 novel missense mutations in the prion-like domain (PrLD) of hnRNPA1 and
From the Departments of Neurology (RI HW KI AN NS MT MK MA) Medical Genetics (RI AN TN YA) the Division ofInterdisciplinary Medical Science (MS) and the Division of Cell Proliferation (RF KN) United Centers for Advanced Research andTranslational Medicine Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine Sendai Japan Department of Neurology (TT) National HospitalOrganization Sendai-Nishitaga National Hospital Sendai Japan Department of Neurology (MT) Iwate National Hospital Ichinoseki Japanand Department of Neuromuscular Research National Institute of Neuroscience National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry (NCNP) andDepartment of Genome Medicine Development Medical Genome Center NCNP (SM IN) Tokyo Japan
Funding information and disclosures are provided at the end of the article Go to Neurologyorgng for full disclosure forms The Article ProcessingCharge was paid by the authors
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 40 (CCBY-NC-ND) which permits downloading and sharing the work provided it is properly cited The work cannot be changed in any way or usedcommercially
Neurologyorgng copy 2015 American Academy of Neurology 1
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hnRNPA2B1 genes were identified in patientswith MSPamyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS)2 which were later designated as MSP3and MSP2 respectively6 Subsequent to thediscovery of hnRNPA1 and hnRNPA2B1 mu-tations screening of these genes resulted in noadditional mutation in Dutch7 French8 andItalian9 patients with ALS frontotemporaldementia inclusion body myopathy (IBM)or MSP which suggests that MSP3 andMSP2 are rarer than expected
We identified an MSP3-linked hnRNPA1mutation by exome sequencing and segregat-ing study in 2 unrelated Japanese families thatpresented with dominantly inherited IBMwithout bone or CNS involvement The puremuscular phenotype is distinct from that ofpreviously described MSP3 cases and isbelieved to be a novel MSP3 phenotype Inthis study we report clinical genetic and his-topathologic features of the 2 pedigrees
METHODS Patients Family 1 included 6 patients (4 male and
2 female) in 3 successive generations family 2 included 11 patients
(7 male and 4 female) in 4 successive generations (figure 1A) Both
families were of Japanese ancestry no consanguineous or interna-
tional mating was found Of all patients 6 individuals (II-13 III-1
III-2 and III-6 in family 1 IV-1 and IV-2 in family 2) were
physically and neurologically examined 4 of them (III-1 and
III-2 in family 1 IV-1 and IV-2 in family 2) were also evaluated
by electrophysiology muscle imaging and biochemical testing In
addition 4 patients (III-1 and III-2 in family 1 IV-1 and IV-4 in
family 2) underwent muscle biopsy
Standard protocol approvals registrations and patient
consents This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of
the Tohoku University School of Medicine all individuals pro-
vided informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study
Muscle histopathology and immunohistochemistry Biop-sied skeletal muscles were rapidly frozen with isopentane cooled
with liquid nitrogen a section of tissues was fixed in 25 glutar-
aldehyde postfixed with 1 OsO4 embedded in epoxy resin
and subjected to light and electronmicroscopy according to standard
procedures We performed single and multiple immunohistochem-
istry as previously described (e-Methods at Neurologyorgng)1011
Primary and secondary antibodies used in this study are listed in
table e-1 Biopsied muscle specimens from patients without signs of
neuromuscular diseases were used as controls
Genetic analysis Exome sequencing Exome sequencing was
performed on 6 family members in family 1 (figure 1A) 4 of
whom were affected Exon capture was performed using the Sure-
Select Human All Exon kit v5 (Agilent Technologies Santa Clara
CA) Exon libraries were sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq 2500
platform according to the manufacturerrsquos instructions (Illumina
San Diego CA) Paired 101-base pair reads were aligned to the
reference human genome (UCSChg19) using the Burrows-
Wheeler Alignment Tool12 Likely PCR duplicates were removed
using the Picard program (httpbroadinstitutegithubiopicard)
Single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and indels were identified using
Genome Analysis Toolkit v16 software13 SNVs and indels were
annotated against the RefSeq database and dbSNP135 with the
ANNOVAR program14
Sanger sequencing To confirm that mutations identified by
exome sequencing segregated with the disease we performed
Sanger sequencing PCR was performed with the primers shown
in table e-1 PCR products were purified using a MultiScreen
PCR plate (Millipore Billerica MA) followed by sequencing
using 3500xL genetic analyzer (Thermo Fisher Scientific
Waltham MA)
RESULTS Clinical features Clinical laboratory andelectrophysiologic data of patients III-1 and III-2 infamily 1 and patients IV-1 and IV-2 in family 2 aresummarized in table 1 Clinical and pathologic findingsof patient III-1 in family 1 who presented with slowlyprogressive weakness and atrophy in the scapularproximal and distal lower limb muscles since his 40swere described in our previous report15 Although hissymptoms initially mimicked distal myopathy withrimmed vacuoles15 the affected muscle distributionlater advanced to a typical limb-girdle pattern
Patient III-2 in family 1 noticed muscle weaknessin his thighs while walking at age 45 The muscleweakness gradually spread to proximal upper limbstrunk and distal lower limbs He required a walkingaid at age 52 and became wheelchair dependent at age54 No developmental disability skeletal deformityor contracture was found Neurologic examination re-vealed no abnormality in his cranial nerves or his sen-sory autonomic and coordination systems Snoutreflex was positive only in this patient (table 1) how-ever other frontal release signs and cognitivebehavioralimpairment were not detected His weakness and atro-phy were predominant in neck and limb-girdle muscles(table 1) Fasciculation was not observed in thesemuscles Tendon reflexes and muscle tonus were dif-fusely decreased The serum creatine kinase (CK) levelwas moderately elevated (approximately 1000 IUL)both alkaline phosphatase and calcium levels werewithin normal ranges Cardiac and respiratory func-tions were normal Needle EMG revealed mild spon-taneous activity such as positive sharp waves andfibrillation potentials in the affected biceps brachiiand tibialis anterior muscles However motor unit po-tentials generally indicated a myogenic pattern charac-terized by normal duration low amplitude earlyrecruitment and reduced interference patterns BrainCT did not indicate any pathologic atrophy Further-more x-rays of the skull spine and pelvis did not revealbone disorganization resembling Paget disease of bone(PDB)
Clinical profiles of patients IV-1 and IV-2 in fam-ily 2 were similar to each other They experiencedwalking difficulty particularly in climbing stairsaround their 40s They became wheelchair dependent
2 Neurology Genetics
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Figure 1 Family pedigrees muscle imaging and genetic investigation
(A) Family pedigrees are shown Filled-in symbols indicate individuals with muscle weakness Empty symbols indicate unaffected individuals without anymedical history or related complaint of muscle weakness dementia or bone disease Asterisks indicate individuals whose DNA was used for this studyIn family 1 DNA was used for whole-exome sequencing and segregating study In family 2 it was used for Sanger sequencing Arrows and arrowheads indi-cate individuals who underwent clinical examination and muscle biopsy respectively (B) Muscle CT was evaluated 8 years after onset in patient III-1 and 10years after onset in the other patients The images show slices of the trunk (first row) proximal arms (second row) and proximal (third row) and distal legs(fourth row) At the level of the trunk all of the patients exhibited moderate-to-severe atrophy in the paraspinal (P) muscles At the level of the proximal armsthe biceps brachii (BB) was commonly affected although the triceps brachii (TB) and brachioradialis (BR) were spared At the level of the proximal legs thebiceps femoris (BF) semimembranosus (SM) adductor magnus (AM) and vastus intermedius (VI) were predominantly affected Less predominant atrophywas observed in the sartorius (SA) semitendinosus (ST) vastus lateralis (VL) and vastus medialis (VM) muscles The atrophy of the semitendinosus muscleof patient IV-1 appeared asymmetrical The rectus femoris (RF) and gracilis (G) muscles were relatively spared in patients III-1 and III-2 whereas they ap-peared to be affected later in patients IV-1 and IV-2 At the level of the distal legs the soleus (S) was severely affected in all patients In contrast the per-oneus longus (PL) gastrocnemius (GC) and tibialis posterior (TP) muscles were relatively spared The tibialis anterior (TA) and extensor digitorum longus (EDL)muscles were affected to varying degrees in each individual (C) The sequence of the identified hnRNPA1 mutation and its conservation among species areshown Sanger sequencing confirmed the heterozygous G to A substitution (indicated by arrows) at the position chr12 54677628 which corresponds to c940GA in exon 9 (NM_031157) The substitution leads to pD314N (NP_112420) and this amino acid is conserved among species
Neurology Genetics 3
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10 years after the clinical onset Their weakness wasdetected mainly in the iliopsoas quadriceps femorishamstrings tibialis anterior and biceps brachii musclesTendon reflexes were generally decreased No otherabnormality was evident on physical and neurologicexamination Their serumCK levels weremildly elevated(approximately 500 IUL) alkaline phosphatase levelswere within the normal range X-rays did not reveal bonedisorganization Needle EMG in patient IV-2 indicateda generally myogenic pattern without spontaneous activ-ity in the affectedmuscles Motor and sensory nerve con-duction in patient IV-1 was normal
Muscle imaging Muscle CT revealed a similar distri-bution of affected muscles among patients in families1 and 2 presenting a remarkable amyotrophy in the
paraspinal biceps brachii biceps femoris semimem-branosus adductor magnus vastus intermedius andsoleus muscles (figure 1B) Less predominant atrophywas distributed in the sartorius semitendinosus vas-tus lateralis and medialis tibialis anterior and exten-sor digitorum longus muscles This muscle atrophywas essentially symmetrical The triceps brachii bra-chioradialis rectus femoris gracilis peroneus longusgastrocnemius and tibialis posterior muscles were rel-atively spared
Muscle histopathology In family 1 the obvious find-ing in patients III-1 and III-2 was rimmed vacuoleswhich were found in 70 and 37 of myofibersrespectively The rimmed vacuoles were mainlyidentified in atrophic fibers (figure 2C) In addition
Table 1 Clinical laboratory and electrophysiologic data of the affected individuals
Neck flex BB IP GM ham Deltoid BB IP QF foot ext BB wrist flex IP QF hamfoot ext
Minor Neck flex deltoid TBfoot flex
Deltoid TB QF foot flexand ext
TB ham foot flex Deltoid TB wrist ext EDLfoot flex
Spared Facial wrist flex and ext Facial wrist flex and ext Neck SCM trapezius facialwrist flex and ext
Facial
Bulbar involvement No No No No
Cardiac involvement No No No No
Respiratory involvement No No No No
Complications
Cognitive impairment No No No No
UMN signs No No No No
Bone deformitypain No No No No
Other findings Ankle joint contracture Snout reflex Ankle joint contracture
EMG
Spontaneous activity No Fib PSW NE No
MUP morphology Myopathic Myopathic NE Myopathic
Nerve conduction study Normal Normal Normal NE
Laboratory data
Alkaline phosphatase IUL 188 311 250 224
Ca mgdL 103 92 90 NE
Creatine kinase IUL 940 1065 512 575
Abbreviations BB 5 biceps brachii EDL 5 extensor digitorum longus ext 5 extensor Fib 5 fibrillation potentials flex 5 flexor GM 5 gluteus maximham 5 hamstrings IP 5 iliopsoas MUP 5 motor unit potential NE 5 not evaluated PSW 5 positive sharp waves QF 5 quadriceps femoris SCM 5
sternocleidomastoideus TB 5 triceps brachii UMN 5 upper motor neuron
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chronic myopathic changes including increasedendomysial fibrosis highly increased variability inthe size of myofibers and increased central nucleiwere found (figure 2A) There was a small numberof regenerated fibers In contrast inflammatorycell infiltration and apparent neurogenic changewere absent Immunohistochemistry revealed thata-sarcoglycan a-dystroglycan caveolin-3 emerinand dystrophin were normally expressed (data notshown) Dysferlin expression was decreased inpatient III-115 and normal in patient III-2 (data notshown) Electron microscopic examination of thepatient III-2 specimen revealed the presence ofmembrane-bound vacuoles containing myeloid bodies(figure 3 A and B) The vacuoles were located amongmyofibrils and were often adjacent to irregularly shapedor indented myonuclei (figure 3 CndashF) We could notfind nuclear or cytoplasmic tubulofilamentousinclusions in this study
Muscle pathology of patients IV-1 and IV-4 infamily 2 was essentially identical to that observed inpatients in family 1 Rimmed vacuoles were detectedin atrophic fibers along with a chronic myopathicchange (figure 2D) Nicotinamide adenine dinucleo-tidendashtetrazolium reductase staining disclosed disorga-nization of the intermyofibrillar network (figure 2F)Inflammation and apparent neurogenic changes werenot detected
Genetic investigationWe identified heterozygous non-synonymous variants which were common amongpatients and absent in unaffected individuals usingwhole-exome sequencing After filtering against the1000 Genomes (httpwww1000genomesorg)and Human Genetic Variation Databases (httpwwwgenomemedkyoto-uacjpSnpDB) 3 novel(ie absent according to the 2 aforementioneddatabases) variants were identified c76GApD26N in HIST1H2BJ encoding histone H2Btype J c202CT pR68W in HIST1H4I encodinghistone H4I and c940GA pD314N in hnRNPA1Because the pD314N and pD314V mutations inhnRNPA1 are known to cause familial ALS andMSP3 respectively2 we then performed segregationanalysis on this candidate through Sanger sequencingin 6 family members analyzed by exome sequencingThis candidate (c940GA in hnRNPA1 [NM_031157]) was detected in all patients (n 5 4) andwas not detected in any of the unaffected familymembers (n 5 2) or in 190 ethnically matchedcontrol individuals (380 chromosomes) (figure 1C)These results suggested that the rare mutationidentified in hnRNPA1 segregated with the disease infamily 1
All previously reported mutations in hnRNPA1and hnRNPA2B1 were consistently located on the
Figure 2 Muscle histopathology
Hematoxylin amp eosin (A B) modified Gomori trichrome (C D) Nicotinamide adenine dinucle-otidendashtetrazolium reductase (E F) cytochrome c oxidase (COX) (G H) serial and ATPasepH45 (I J) staining of the biopsied muscle samples from the biceps brachii of patient III-2 infamily 1 (left panels A C E G I) and the triceps brachii of patient IV-1 in family 2 (rightpanels B D F H J) are shown Hypertrophic fibers larger than 100 mm and angulated orrounded atrophic fibers are shown (A B) Highly increased central nuclei and a fraction offibers with pyknotic nuclear clumps are present (B) Rimmed vacuoles are located in atrophicfibers which tend to make small groups (C D) Disorganization of the myofibrillar network isobserved (F) COX staining does not display complete COX-deficient myofibers (G H) OnATPase pH45 the type distribution is almost equal and atrophic fibers are observed in bothtype 1 and type 2 fibers (I J) Type grouping is essentially negative except for the subtlefinding of several type 1 fibers making a small group (I J) Scale bars 5 100 mm
Neurology Genetics 5
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core PrLD of the hnRNPs2 We then analyzed thesequence-encoding core PrLDs of hnRNPA1 (nucleo-tides 697ndash972 in NM_031157 which encode co-dons 233ndash324 in NP_112420) and hnRNPA2B1(nucleotides 796ndash909 in NM_002137 whichencode codons 266ndash303 in NP_002128) in patientIII-1 in family 1 and patients IV-1 and IV-2 in family2 Sanger sequencing confirmed that pD314N
in hnRNPA1 is the only mutation across theabove-mentioned sequence in patient III-1 in family1 and revealed that patients IV-1 and IV-2 in family 2also harbor the same mutation
Multiple immunohistochemistry To define hnRNPA1protein localization with its related proteins we per-formed multiple immunofluorescence in biopsied
Figure 3 Ultrastructural analysis of muscle
Ultrastructural findings of patient III-2 in family 1 are shown The enclosed section of E is enlarged in F The autophagicvacuoles containing myeloid bodies and glycogen granules are located among myofibrils (A B) and neighboring myonuclei(CndashF) Myonuclei (indicated by N) located in subsarcolemma (C) or sarcoplasm (D) are irregularly shaped and have indentation(an arrow) Scale bars are embedded in each panel
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muscle specimens from patient III-2 in family 1samples from other patients in the 2 families wereunavailable The major finding was sarcoplasmicsubsarcolemmal and perinuclear aggregation ofhnRNPA1 in atrophic fibers and in fibers withrimmed vacuoles (figure 4 AndashH) Atrophic fibersfrequently retained transactive response DNA-bindingprotein 43 kDa (TDP-43)ubiquitin (Ub) double-positive cytoplasmic aggregates with the nucleardepletion of TDP-43 (figure 4 IndashL) In associationwith multiple rimmed vacuoles the mislocalizedTDP-43 was occasionally phosphorylated at Ser409Ser410 residues it also colocalized with sequestome-1(SQSTM1p62) and hnRNPA1 (figure 4 MndashP) Therimmed vacuoles were Ub- and SQSTM1p62-positive some were stained with anti-SQSTM1p62phosphorylated at the Ser403 residue (figure 4QndashT) The MSP2-linked gene product hnRNPA2B1was also detected in Ub-positive aggregates in atrophicor rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fibers (figure 4 UndashX)hnRNPA1 and A2B1 were generally colocalized(figure e-1 IndashL) a discrete aggregation of the 2hnRNPs occurred infrequently (figure e-1 MndashP)Mislocalization and deprivation of hnRNPA1 orhnRNPA2B1 from the myonuclei were rarely foundin extremely atrophied fibers (figure e-1 MndashP)Neonatal myosin heavy chainndashpositive regenerativefibers also exhibited the hnRNPA1 aggregationpathology (data not shown)
On the basis of the aforementioned findings withhnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 TDP-43 SQSTM1p62and Ub pathology we further examined the possiblecoaggregationmislocalization ofMSPALS-linked pro-teins Fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma(FUSTLS) TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor2N and Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 knownas FET family proteins harboring the PrLD were co-localized with Ub- or SQSTM1p62-positive sarco-plasmic aggregates in atrophic fibers (figure 5 AndashH)and in rimmed vacuoles (figure 5 IndashL) HoweverFUSTLS aggregation was substantially minimalnuclear clearance of the FET proteins was lackingValosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 was also colo-calized with SQSTM1p62-positive hnRNPA1 aggre-gates closely related to rimmed vacuoles (figure 5MndashP) Furthermore matrin-3 formed subsarcolemmalSQSTM1p62-labeled clumps (figure 5 QndashT) How-ever loss of matrin-3 immunoreactivity in the myonu-clei was essentially absent All aberrant aggregationsobserved in patient III-2 in family 1 were negative incontrol specimens (data not shown)
DISCUSSION We found that the missense mutationc940GA pD314N in hnRNPA1 segregated withIBM an additional pure muscular phenotype ofMSP3 in 2 unrelated Japanese families The identified
mutation in hnRNPA1 was considered to be patho-genic for the following reasons (1) exome sequencingrevealed that this was one of the best candidate muta-tions after filtering single nucleotide polymorphismsand indels (2) no pathogenic variants were detectedamong known causative genes of dominantly inheritedmyopathy with rimmed vacuoles such as VCP1
MYH216 MYOT17 DES18 CRYAB19 TTN20
PABP221 and MATR34 in exome sequencing (3) itwas common between 2 independent families withdominantly inherited IBM (4) it was not detected in190 ethnically matched control individuals and (5)this mutation and the substitute on the identical resi-due are known to be causative of familial ALS andMSP3 respectively2
All patients included in this study had nearly identicalclinical features such as autosomal dominant inheritancewith probable high penetrance late adult-onset slowlyprogressive myopathy with predominant limb-girdleweakness absence of cognitivemotor neuronbone tis-sue involvement mild-to-moderate elevation of serumCK and histologic findings compatible with IBM (table1 figure 2) The pD314N mutation in hnRNPA1 wasreported to cause familial ALS in a previous report2 Incontrast to that report motor neuron disease was fun-damentally negative in our patients The different sub-stitute on the identical residue pD314V in hnRNPA1was linked to late-onset autosomal dominant limb-girdlemuscular dystrophy accompanied by PDB222 The mus-cular phenotype caused by the hnRNPA1 pD314Vmutation is similar to that of our patients with regardto age at onset progression course and affected muscledistribution However the bone involvement in patientswith pD314V mutations accentuates the phenotypicdifference between the previously reported cases andthe cases presented in this study In this context theisolated muscle involvement is extremely distinct fromthat of the previously reported cases and is believed to bea novel pure phenotype of MSP3
The affectedmuscle distribution revealed bymuscleimaging is similar to that of previously reported pa-tients with MSP322 and MSP43 particularly in thesignificant involvement of biceps femoris and soleuswith relatively spared rectus femoris and tibialis poste-rior muscles However the distribution pattern ishighly diverse even in VCP-linked MSP12324 and alsoin various rimmed vacuolar myopathies including IBMwith GNE mutations and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis Nonetheless the aforementioned resem-blance at least among the cases with MSP3 suggestsa possible association between myotoxicity by themutant hnRNPA1 and vulnerability in each part ofmuscles A possible common feature of the vulnerablemuscles such as expression level of mutatedassociatedproteins muscle fiberndashtype composition and energymetabolism remains to be clarified
Neurology Genetics 7
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Figure 4 Multiple immunofluorescence for hnRNPA1 and related proteins
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the biopsied skeletal muscle of patient III-2 in family 1(AndashH) Aberrant subsarcolemmalperinuclear aggregation (arrowheads) and increased sarcoplasmic retention of heteroge-neous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNPA1) were mainly evident in atrophic fibers Inset in H is a higher magnification of theboxed area (scale bar 5 10 mm) The subsarcolemmalperinuclear hnRNPA1 aggregates were often colocalized with ubiq-uitin (Ub AndashD arrowheads) and SQSTM1p62 (EndashH arrows) Note the close association of hnRNPA1Ub double-positiveaggregation with the rimmed vacuole (AndashD arrows) (IndashL) In the atrophic fibers transactive response DNA binding protein43 kDa (TDP-43)Ub double-positive aggregation (arrowheads) was also observed with the cytoplasmic mislocalization andnuclear depletion of TDP-43 (arrows) (MndashP) The aberrant aggregation of hnRNPA1 was occasionally triple-labeled withphosphorylated TDP-43 and sequestome-1p62 (SQSTM1p62) closely adjacent to rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (QndashX) Therimmed vacuoles were often related to Ub phosphorylated SQSTM1p62 (QndashT arrows) and hnRNPA2B1 (UndashX asterisksindicate a rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fiber) TO-PRO-3 nuclear staining (C G K W) Scale bars 5 50 mm
8 Neurology Genetics
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Muscle histopathology of the 2 families was com-patible with IBM Common features were increasedrimmed vacuoles absence of inflammation andapparent neurogenic change and slight muscle fibernecrosis and regeneration The involvement of
neurogenic atrophy was not completely excludedbecause of angulated fibers (figure 2A) pyknoticnuclear clumps (figure 2B) and several type 1 fibersmaking a small group (figure 2 I and J) whereas ourspecimen lacked the findings of large group atrophy
Figure 5 Multiple immunohistochemistry for various RNA-binding proteins and VCPp97
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the specimens of patient III-2 in family 1 (AndashD) Note theperinuclear and subsarcolemmal aggregation of fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma (FUSTLS) with sparse staining incytoplasm (arrows) whereas FUSTLS mislocalization was scarcely observed (EndashH) In atrophic fibers (asterisks) diffuse cyto-plasmic expression and extranuclearsubsarcolemmal aggregation of TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor 2N (TAF15)were frequently found The aggregation is partially colabeled with ubiquitin (arrowheads) (IndashL) In addition to heterogeneousnuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A1 and A2B1 Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 (EWSR1) and sequestome-1p62(SQSTM1p62) double-positive aggregation was observed in rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (MndashP) Note the multisystem protein-opathy 1ndashlinked valosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 SQSTM1p62 and hnRNPA1 triple-labeled aggregates in the rimmedvacuoles (arrows) (QndashT) In atrophic fibers amyotrophic lateral sclerosisdistal myopathyndashlinked matrin-3 was aberrantlyinvolved in the subsarcolemmal SQSTM1p62-positive aggregates (arrowheads) Scale bars 5 50 mm
Neurology Genetics 9
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or apparent fiber type grouping These pathologicfindings share a close resemblance to those of IBMwith the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 We haveclearly identified autophagic vacuoles containingmyeloid bodies which often neighbored irregularlyshaped or indented myonuclei Similar pathologicfindings were also reported in patients with a muta-tion in MATR345 In addition enlarged myonuclearpores and amorphous materials along the nuclearmembrane were reported in a patient with MSP3with the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 Thereforethe question of whether this perinuclear pathologyreflects possible dysfunction of RBPs and myonucleiis of interest
Cytoplasmic retention and subsarcolemmalperinu-clear aggregation of the hnRNPA1 protein in degener-ating myofibers were prominent features revealed byimmunohistochemistry (figure 4) The distribution ofhnRNPA1-postitive aggregates corresponds closely toclusters of autophagic vacuoles ultrastructurally More-over the aggregated hnRNPA1 frequently coexistedwith Ub and an autophagic substrate (Ser403-phosphorylated) SQSTM1p62 These congruentevents suggest an aberrantly increased burden triggeredby the hnRNPA1mutation on the intrinsic protein deg-radation system including selective autophagy25
TDP-43 pathology comprising cytoplasmic aggrega-tion and nuclear exclusion was also abundant in ourstudy (figure 4) consistent with previous observationsin patients carrying the pD314V hnRNPA1mutation2
Despite the resemblance mislocalization or clearance ofmyonuclear hnRNPA1A2B1 was barely found in ourspecimens (figure e-1) suggesting sarcoplasmic pathol-ogy rather than defective physiologic function inmyonuclei as a possible primary event by mutanthnRNPA1 Nonetheless the cytoplasmic aggregationand nuclear depletion of hnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1and TDP-43 are to a varying degree pathologic hall-marks in common with muscle degeneration inMSP1ndash3 and in sporadic inclusion body myositis2627
Unexpectedly as unreported observations otherPrLD-harboring proteins such as FET family proteinsalso constituted cytoplasmic aggregates in the degener-ating muscle fibers to a lesser extent on FUSTLS (fig-ure 5) Furthermore even proteins without a PrLDsuch as ALSdistal myopathy-linked45 matrin-3 andMSP1-linked VCPp97 formed cytoplasmic coaggre-gation with hnRNPA1 in this study (figure 5) suggest-ing broad involvement of RBPs and their regulatorsRecent reports uncovered a direct interaction amonghnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 and TDP-4328 They havealso suggested the essential role of VCPp97 in theautophagic clearance of excess assembly of nontranslat-ing messenger ribonucleoprotein complexes to preventpathogenic ribonucleoprotein aggregates2930 Togetherwith the results of previous reports whichever is
mutated ribonucleoprotein granulesrsquo hyperassemblyand their defective clearance may be a major pathome-chanism leading to widespread sequestration of theMSPALS-linked proteins and eventual muscle fiberdegeneration
The sarcolemmal dysferlin expression was variedin the presented cases ranging from decreased to nor-mal immunoreactivity Although comorbid loss ofdysferlin in biopsied muscles is occasionally observedin dystrophinopathy sarcoglycanopathy caveolinop-athy calpainopathy and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis31 loss of physiologic function of dysferlinhas not been reported in MSPs to date Thus thepossible association between dysferlin and hnRNPA1remains to be elucidated
We have reported dominantly inherited isolatedIBM as a novel phenotype of MSP3 Muscle weaknessas an isolated symptom is estimated to account forapproximately 30 of all symptoms in MSP12432 Inaddition to the rare involvement of bone reported inAsian patients withMSP133 PDB itself is infrequent inthe Japanese population34 Therefore such ethnic dif-ferences in genetic background may be associated withthe Japanese MSP3 phenotype The selective involve-ment of skeletal muscles reported in this study shouldbe confirmed particularly by pathologic analyses as acumulative case study Nevertheless the present resultssuggest that mutations in hnRNPA1 and possiblyhnRNPA2B1 will be identified in patients with a puremuscular phenotype specifically presenting etiology-unknown IBM as was the case with hnRNP-associatedgenes reported in Welander distal myopathy and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 1G35ndash37 The precise evalua-tion of these cases will help to elucidate the diseasefrequency penetrance genotypendashphenotype correla-tion and natural history of patients with MSPs Theunresolved issue will be challenged by the developmentof cellular and animal models strictly reflecting MSPs
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSRumiko Izumi principal author designed the study analyzed and inter-
preted the data drafted the manuscript Hitoshi Warita coauthor de-
signed the study performed the immunohistochemical study of
biopsied muscle specimens and revised the manuscript Tetsuya Niihori
and Yoko Aoki coauthors designed the study analyzed and interpreted
the data and revised the manuscript Toshiaki Takahashi Satomi Mitsu-
hashi and Ichizo Nishino coauthors acquired and provided data Maki
Tateyama coauthor performed the light and electron microscopic study
of the biopsied muscles and revised the manuscript Naoki Suzuki and
Masashi Aoki coauthors revised the manuscript Ayumi Nishiyama
coauthor performed the Sanger sequencing Matsuyuki Shirota Ryo
Funayama and Keiko Nakayama coauthors analyzed and interpreted
the data
ACKNOWLEDGMENTThe authors appreciate the cooperation of the patients and their families
and are grateful to Drs Kazuo Kobayashi Hideki Mizuno Takafumi Ha-
segawa Ohito Tano and Hiroshi Kuroda for their fruitful discussions and
Yoko Tateda Kumi Kato Riyo Takahashi Naoko Shimakura Risa Ando
Maya Narisawa Miyuki Tsuda Makiko Nakagawa Mami Kikuchi and
10 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Kiyotaka Kuroda for technical assistance Moreover the support of the
Biomedical Research Core of Tohoku University Graduate School of Med-
icine is also gratefully acknowledged
STUDY FUNDINGThis study was supported by an Intramural Research Grant (26-8) for
Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders of NCNP the grant on Research
on Rare and Intractable Diseases (H26-intractable disease 037 and 082)
from the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan the Ministry
of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan (H26-Nanchitou(Nan)-Ippan-
079) Grants-in-Aid for research on rare and intractable diseases the
Research Committee on Establishment of Novel Treatments for Amyo-
trophic Lateral Sclerosis Grants-in-Aid from the Research Committee
of CNS Degenerative Diseases from the Japanese Ministry of Health
Labor and Welfare Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (25293199
and 26461288) Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from the Japanese Ministry of Education Culture Sports
Science and Technology
DISCLOSUREDr Izumi reports no disclosures Dr Warita has received research sup-
port from Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (26461288 25293199
and 23591229) and Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Japan Dr Niihori and Dr Takahashi report no disclosures Dr Tateya-
ma has received honoraria for lecturing from Daiichi Sankyo company
and has received research support from the Japan Society of the Promo-
tion of Science (KAKENHI 25461265) Dr Suzuki and Dr Nishiyama
report no disclosures Dr Shirota has received research support from
MEXT JSPS KAKENHI (26730148) and JST (14533504) Dr
Funayama has a patent pending on the quantitative ChIP-seq technology
and has received research support from the grant on Research on Rare
and Intractable Diseases from the Ministry of Health Labour and Wel-
fare (Japan) an Intramural Research Grant for Neurological and Psychi-
atric Disorders of NCNP and Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Dr Nakayama
and Dr Mitsuhashi report no disclosures Dr Nishino serves on the sci-
entific advisory board for Nobelpharma Ultragenyx and Genzyme
serves as an editorial board member of Neuromuscular Disorders Neurol-
ogy and Clinical Neuroscience eNeurologicalSci Skeletal Muscle Journal of
Neuromuscular Diseases Journal of the Neurological Sciences Rinsho Shin-
keigaku Chinese Journal of Contemporary Neurology and Neurosurgery and
Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders has a patent pending on
the therapeutic pharmaceutical agent for diseases associated with decrease
in function of GNE protein food composition and food additive has
received honoraria from Genzyme Japan and has received research sup-
port from Genzyme Japan Novartis Japan Astellas JSPS (KAKENHI
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is an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology Published since April 2015 it isNeurol Genet
hnRNPA2B1 genes were identified in patientswith MSPamyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS)2 which were later designated as MSP3and MSP2 respectively6 Subsequent to thediscovery of hnRNPA1 and hnRNPA2B1 mu-tations screening of these genes resulted in noadditional mutation in Dutch7 French8 andItalian9 patients with ALS frontotemporaldementia inclusion body myopathy (IBM)or MSP which suggests that MSP3 andMSP2 are rarer than expected
We identified an MSP3-linked hnRNPA1mutation by exome sequencing and segregat-ing study in 2 unrelated Japanese families thatpresented with dominantly inherited IBMwithout bone or CNS involvement The puremuscular phenotype is distinct from that ofpreviously described MSP3 cases and isbelieved to be a novel MSP3 phenotype Inthis study we report clinical genetic and his-topathologic features of the 2 pedigrees
METHODS Patients Family 1 included 6 patients (4 male and
2 female) in 3 successive generations family 2 included 11 patients
(7 male and 4 female) in 4 successive generations (figure 1A) Both
families were of Japanese ancestry no consanguineous or interna-
tional mating was found Of all patients 6 individuals (II-13 III-1
III-2 and III-6 in family 1 IV-1 and IV-2 in family 2) were
physically and neurologically examined 4 of them (III-1 and
III-2 in family 1 IV-1 and IV-2 in family 2) were also evaluated
by electrophysiology muscle imaging and biochemical testing In
addition 4 patients (III-1 and III-2 in family 1 IV-1 and IV-4 in
family 2) underwent muscle biopsy
Standard protocol approvals registrations and patient
consents This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of
the Tohoku University School of Medicine all individuals pro-
vided informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study
Muscle histopathology and immunohistochemistry Biop-sied skeletal muscles were rapidly frozen with isopentane cooled
with liquid nitrogen a section of tissues was fixed in 25 glutar-
aldehyde postfixed with 1 OsO4 embedded in epoxy resin
and subjected to light and electronmicroscopy according to standard
procedures We performed single and multiple immunohistochem-
istry as previously described (e-Methods at Neurologyorgng)1011
Primary and secondary antibodies used in this study are listed in
table e-1 Biopsied muscle specimens from patients without signs of
neuromuscular diseases were used as controls
Genetic analysis Exome sequencing Exome sequencing was
performed on 6 family members in family 1 (figure 1A) 4 of
whom were affected Exon capture was performed using the Sure-
Select Human All Exon kit v5 (Agilent Technologies Santa Clara
CA) Exon libraries were sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq 2500
platform according to the manufacturerrsquos instructions (Illumina
San Diego CA) Paired 101-base pair reads were aligned to the
reference human genome (UCSChg19) using the Burrows-
Wheeler Alignment Tool12 Likely PCR duplicates were removed
using the Picard program (httpbroadinstitutegithubiopicard)
Single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and indels were identified using
Genome Analysis Toolkit v16 software13 SNVs and indels were
annotated against the RefSeq database and dbSNP135 with the
ANNOVAR program14
Sanger sequencing To confirm that mutations identified by
exome sequencing segregated with the disease we performed
Sanger sequencing PCR was performed with the primers shown
in table e-1 PCR products were purified using a MultiScreen
PCR plate (Millipore Billerica MA) followed by sequencing
using 3500xL genetic analyzer (Thermo Fisher Scientific
Waltham MA)
RESULTS Clinical features Clinical laboratory andelectrophysiologic data of patients III-1 and III-2 infamily 1 and patients IV-1 and IV-2 in family 2 aresummarized in table 1 Clinical and pathologic findingsof patient III-1 in family 1 who presented with slowlyprogressive weakness and atrophy in the scapularproximal and distal lower limb muscles since his 40swere described in our previous report15 Although hissymptoms initially mimicked distal myopathy withrimmed vacuoles15 the affected muscle distributionlater advanced to a typical limb-girdle pattern
Patient III-2 in family 1 noticed muscle weaknessin his thighs while walking at age 45 The muscleweakness gradually spread to proximal upper limbstrunk and distal lower limbs He required a walkingaid at age 52 and became wheelchair dependent at age54 No developmental disability skeletal deformityor contracture was found Neurologic examination re-vealed no abnormality in his cranial nerves or his sen-sory autonomic and coordination systems Snoutreflex was positive only in this patient (table 1) how-ever other frontal release signs and cognitivebehavioralimpairment were not detected His weakness and atro-phy were predominant in neck and limb-girdle muscles(table 1) Fasciculation was not observed in thesemuscles Tendon reflexes and muscle tonus were dif-fusely decreased The serum creatine kinase (CK) levelwas moderately elevated (approximately 1000 IUL)both alkaline phosphatase and calcium levels werewithin normal ranges Cardiac and respiratory func-tions were normal Needle EMG revealed mild spon-taneous activity such as positive sharp waves andfibrillation potentials in the affected biceps brachiiand tibialis anterior muscles However motor unit po-tentials generally indicated a myogenic pattern charac-terized by normal duration low amplitude earlyrecruitment and reduced interference patterns BrainCT did not indicate any pathologic atrophy Further-more x-rays of the skull spine and pelvis did not revealbone disorganization resembling Paget disease of bone(PDB)
Clinical profiles of patients IV-1 and IV-2 in fam-ily 2 were similar to each other They experiencedwalking difficulty particularly in climbing stairsaround their 40s They became wheelchair dependent
2 Neurology Genetics
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Figure 1 Family pedigrees muscle imaging and genetic investigation
(A) Family pedigrees are shown Filled-in symbols indicate individuals with muscle weakness Empty symbols indicate unaffected individuals without anymedical history or related complaint of muscle weakness dementia or bone disease Asterisks indicate individuals whose DNA was used for this studyIn family 1 DNA was used for whole-exome sequencing and segregating study In family 2 it was used for Sanger sequencing Arrows and arrowheads indi-cate individuals who underwent clinical examination and muscle biopsy respectively (B) Muscle CT was evaluated 8 years after onset in patient III-1 and 10years after onset in the other patients The images show slices of the trunk (first row) proximal arms (second row) and proximal (third row) and distal legs(fourth row) At the level of the trunk all of the patients exhibited moderate-to-severe atrophy in the paraspinal (P) muscles At the level of the proximal armsthe biceps brachii (BB) was commonly affected although the triceps brachii (TB) and brachioradialis (BR) were spared At the level of the proximal legs thebiceps femoris (BF) semimembranosus (SM) adductor magnus (AM) and vastus intermedius (VI) were predominantly affected Less predominant atrophywas observed in the sartorius (SA) semitendinosus (ST) vastus lateralis (VL) and vastus medialis (VM) muscles The atrophy of the semitendinosus muscleof patient IV-1 appeared asymmetrical The rectus femoris (RF) and gracilis (G) muscles were relatively spared in patients III-1 and III-2 whereas they ap-peared to be affected later in patients IV-1 and IV-2 At the level of the distal legs the soleus (S) was severely affected in all patients In contrast the per-oneus longus (PL) gastrocnemius (GC) and tibialis posterior (TP) muscles were relatively spared The tibialis anterior (TA) and extensor digitorum longus (EDL)muscles were affected to varying degrees in each individual (C) The sequence of the identified hnRNPA1 mutation and its conservation among species areshown Sanger sequencing confirmed the heterozygous G to A substitution (indicated by arrows) at the position chr12 54677628 which corresponds to c940GA in exon 9 (NM_031157) The substitution leads to pD314N (NP_112420) and this amino acid is conserved among species
Neurology Genetics 3
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10 years after the clinical onset Their weakness wasdetected mainly in the iliopsoas quadriceps femorishamstrings tibialis anterior and biceps brachii musclesTendon reflexes were generally decreased No otherabnormality was evident on physical and neurologicexamination Their serumCK levels weremildly elevated(approximately 500 IUL) alkaline phosphatase levelswere within the normal range X-rays did not reveal bonedisorganization Needle EMG in patient IV-2 indicateda generally myogenic pattern without spontaneous activ-ity in the affectedmuscles Motor and sensory nerve con-duction in patient IV-1 was normal
Muscle imaging Muscle CT revealed a similar distri-bution of affected muscles among patients in families1 and 2 presenting a remarkable amyotrophy in the
paraspinal biceps brachii biceps femoris semimem-branosus adductor magnus vastus intermedius andsoleus muscles (figure 1B) Less predominant atrophywas distributed in the sartorius semitendinosus vas-tus lateralis and medialis tibialis anterior and exten-sor digitorum longus muscles This muscle atrophywas essentially symmetrical The triceps brachii bra-chioradialis rectus femoris gracilis peroneus longusgastrocnemius and tibialis posterior muscles were rel-atively spared
Muscle histopathology In family 1 the obvious find-ing in patients III-1 and III-2 was rimmed vacuoleswhich were found in 70 and 37 of myofibersrespectively The rimmed vacuoles were mainlyidentified in atrophic fibers (figure 2C) In addition
Table 1 Clinical laboratory and electrophysiologic data of the affected individuals
Neck flex BB IP GM ham Deltoid BB IP QF foot ext BB wrist flex IP QF hamfoot ext
Minor Neck flex deltoid TBfoot flex
Deltoid TB QF foot flexand ext
TB ham foot flex Deltoid TB wrist ext EDLfoot flex
Spared Facial wrist flex and ext Facial wrist flex and ext Neck SCM trapezius facialwrist flex and ext
Facial
Bulbar involvement No No No No
Cardiac involvement No No No No
Respiratory involvement No No No No
Complications
Cognitive impairment No No No No
UMN signs No No No No
Bone deformitypain No No No No
Other findings Ankle joint contracture Snout reflex Ankle joint contracture
EMG
Spontaneous activity No Fib PSW NE No
MUP morphology Myopathic Myopathic NE Myopathic
Nerve conduction study Normal Normal Normal NE
Laboratory data
Alkaline phosphatase IUL 188 311 250 224
Ca mgdL 103 92 90 NE
Creatine kinase IUL 940 1065 512 575
Abbreviations BB 5 biceps brachii EDL 5 extensor digitorum longus ext 5 extensor Fib 5 fibrillation potentials flex 5 flexor GM 5 gluteus maximham 5 hamstrings IP 5 iliopsoas MUP 5 motor unit potential NE 5 not evaluated PSW 5 positive sharp waves QF 5 quadriceps femoris SCM 5
sternocleidomastoideus TB 5 triceps brachii UMN 5 upper motor neuron
4 Neurology Genetics
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chronic myopathic changes including increasedendomysial fibrosis highly increased variability inthe size of myofibers and increased central nucleiwere found (figure 2A) There was a small numberof regenerated fibers In contrast inflammatorycell infiltration and apparent neurogenic changewere absent Immunohistochemistry revealed thata-sarcoglycan a-dystroglycan caveolin-3 emerinand dystrophin were normally expressed (data notshown) Dysferlin expression was decreased inpatient III-115 and normal in patient III-2 (data notshown) Electron microscopic examination of thepatient III-2 specimen revealed the presence ofmembrane-bound vacuoles containing myeloid bodies(figure 3 A and B) The vacuoles were located amongmyofibrils and were often adjacent to irregularly shapedor indented myonuclei (figure 3 CndashF) We could notfind nuclear or cytoplasmic tubulofilamentousinclusions in this study
Muscle pathology of patients IV-1 and IV-4 infamily 2 was essentially identical to that observed inpatients in family 1 Rimmed vacuoles were detectedin atrophic fibers along with a chronic myopathicchange (figure 2D) Nicotinamide adenine dinucleo-tidendashtetrazolium reductase staining disclosed disorga-nization of the intermyofibrillar network (figure 2F)Inflammation and apparent neurogenic changes werenot detected
Genetic investigationWe identified heterozygous non-synonymous variants which were common amongpatients and absent in unaffected individuals usingwhole-exome sequencing After filtering against the1000 Genomes (httpwww1000genomesorg)and Human Genetic Variation Databases (httpwwwgenomemedkyoto-uacjpSnpDB) 3 novel(ie absent according to the 2 aforementioneddatabases) variants were identified c76GApD26N in HIST1H2BJ encoding histone H2Btype J c202CT pR68W in HIST1H4I encodinghistone H4I and c940GA pD314N in hnRNPA1Because the pD314N and pD314V mutations inhnRNPA1 are known to cause familial ALS andMSP3 respectively2 we then performed segregationanalysis on this candidate through Sanger sequencingin 6 family members analyzed by exome sequencingThis candidate (c940GA in hnRNPA1 [NM_031157]) was detected in all patients (n 5 4) andwas not detected in any of the unaffected familymembers (n 5 2) or in 190 ethnically matchedcontrol individuals (380 chromosomes) (figure 1C)These results suggested that the rare mutationidentified in hnRNPA1 segregated with the disease infamily 1
All previously reported mutations in hnRNPA1and hnRNPA2B1 were consistently located on the
Figure 2 Muscle histopathology
Hematoxylin amp eosin (A B) modified Gomori trichrome (C D) Nicotinamide adenine dinucle-otidendashtetrazolium reductase (E F) cytochrome c oxidase (COX) (G H) serial and ATPasepH45 (I J) staining of the biopsied muscle samples from the biceps brachii of patient III-2 infamily 1 (left panels A C E G I) and the triceps brachii of patient IV-1 in family 2 (rightpanels B D F H J) are shown Hypertrophic fibers larger than 100 mm and angulated orrounded atrophic fibers are shown (A B) Highly increased central nuclei and a fraction offibers with pyknotic nuclear clumps are present (B) Rimmed vacuoles are located in atrophicfibers which tend to make small groups (C D) Disorganization of the myofibrillar network isobserved (F) COX staining does not display complete COX-deficient myofibers (G H) OnATPase pH45 the type distribution is almost equal and atrophic fibers are observed in bothtype 1 and type 2 fibers (I J) Type grouping is essentially negative except for the subtlefinding of several type 1 fibers making a small group (I J) Scale bars 5 100 mm
Neurology Genetics 5
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
core PrLD of the hnRNPs2 We then analyzed thesequence-encoding core PrLDs of hnRNPA1 (nucleo-tides 697ndash972 in NM_031157 which encode co-dons 233ndash324 in NP_112420) and hnRNPA2B1(nucleotides 796ndash909 in NM_002137 whichencode codons 266ndash303 in NP_002128) in patientIII-1 in family 1 and patients IV-1 and IV-2 in family2 Sanger sequencing confirmed that pD314N
in hnRNPA1 is the only mutation across theabove-mentioned sequence in patient III-1 in family1 and revealed that patients IV-1 and IV-2 in family 2also harbor the same mutation
Multiple immunohistochemistry To define hnRNPA1protein localization with its related proteins we per-formed multiple immunofluorescence in biopsied
Figure 3 Ultrastructural analysis of muscle
Ultrastructural findings of patient III-2 in family 1 are shown The enclosed section of E is enlarged in F The autophagicvacuoles containing myeloid bodies and glycogen granules are located among myofibrils (A B) and neighboring myonuclei(CndashF) Myonuclei (indicated by N) located in subsarcolemma (C) or sarcoplasm (D) are irregularly shaped and have indentation(an arrow) Scale bars are embedded in each panel
6 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
muscle specimens from patient III-2 in family 1samples from other patients in the 2 families wereunavailable The major finding was sarcoplasmicsubsarcolemmal and perinuclear aggregation ofhnRNPA1 in atrophic fibers and in fibers withrimmed vacuoles (figure 4 AndashH) Atrophic fibersfrequently retained transactive response DNA-bindingprotein 43 kDa (TDP-43)ubiquitin (Ub) double-positive cytoplasmic aggregates with the nucleardepletion of TDP-43 (figure 4 IndashL) In associationwith multiple rimmed vacuoles the mislocalizedTDP-43 was occasionally phosphorylated at Ser409Ser410 residues it also colocalized with sequestome-1(SQSTM1p62) and hnRNPA1 (figure 4 MndashP) Therimmed vacuoles were Ub- and SQSTM1p62-positive some were stained with anti-SQSTM1p62phosphorylated at the Ser403 residue (figure 4QndashT) The MSP2-linked gene product hnRNPA2B1was also detected in Ub-positive aggregates in atrophicor rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fibers (figure 4 UndashX)hnRNPA1 and A2B1 were generally colocalized(figure e-1 IndashL) a discrete aggregation of the 2hnRNPs occurred infrequently (figure e-1 MndashP)Mislocalization and deprivation of hnRNPA1 orhnRNPA2B1 from the myonuclei were rarely foundin extremely atrophied fibers (figure e-1 MndashP)Neonatal myosin heavy chainndashpositive regenerativefibers also exhibited the hnRNPA1 aggregationpathology (data not shown)
On the basis of the aforementioned findings withhnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 TDP-43 SQSTM1p62and Ub pathology we further examined the possiblecoaggregationmislocalization ofMSPALS-linked pro-teins Fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma(FUSTLS) TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor2N and Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 knownas FET family proteins harboring the PrLD were co-localized with Ub- or SQSTM1p62-positive sarco-plasmic aggregates in atrophic fibers (figure 5 AndashH)and in rimmed vacuoles (figure 5 IndashL) HoweverFUSTLS aggregation was substantially minimalnuclear clearance of the FET proteins was lackingValosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 was also colo-calized with SQSTM1p62-positive hnRNPA1 aggre-gates closely related to rimmed vacuoles (figure 5MndashP) Furthermore matrin-3 formed subsarcolemmalSQSTM1p62-labeled clumps (figure 5 QndashT) How-ever loss of matrin-3 immunoreactivity in the myonu-clei was essentially absent All aberrant aggregationsobserved in patient III-2 in family 1 were negative incontrol specimens (data not shown)
DISCUSSION We found that the missense mutationc940GA pD314N in hnRNPA1 segregated withIBM an additional pure muscular phenotype ofMSP3 in 2 unrelated Japanese families The identified
mutation in hnRNPA1 was considered to be patho-genic for the following reasons (1) exome sequencingrevealed that this was one of the best candidate muta-tions after filtering single nucleotide polymorphismsand indels (2) no pathogenic variants were detectedamong known causative genes of dominantly inheritedmyopathy with rimmed vacuoles such as VCP1
MYH216 MYOT17 DES18 CRYAB19 TTN20
PABP221 and MATR34 in exome sequencing (3) itwas common between 2 independent families withdominantly inherited IBM (4) it was not detected in190 ethnically matched control individuals and (5)this mutation and the substitute on the identical resi-due are known to be causative of familial ALS andMSP3 respectively2
All patients included in this study had nearly identicalclinical features such as autosomal dominant inheritancewith probable high penetrance late adult-onset slowlyprogressive myopathy with predominant limb-girdleweakness absence of cognitivemotor neuronbone tis-sue involvement mild-to-moderate elevation of serumCK and histologic findings compatible with IBM (table1 figure 2) The pD314N mutation in hnRNPA1 wasreported to cause familial ALS in a previous report2 Incontrast to that report motor neuron disease was fun-damentally negative in our patients The different sub-stitute on the identical residue pD314V in hnRNPA1was linked to late-onset autosomal dominant limb-girdlemuscular dystrophy accompanied by PDB222 The mus-cular phenotype caused by the hnRNPA1 pD314Vmutation is similar to that of our patients with regardto age at onset progression course and affected muscledistribution However the bone involvement in patientswith pD314V mutations accentuates the phenotypicdifference between the previously reported cases andthe cases presented in this study In this context theisolated muscle involvement is extremely distinct fromthat of the previously reported cases and is believed to bea novel pure phenotype of MSP3
The affectedmuscle distribution revealed bymuscleimaging is similar to that of previously reported pa-tients with MSP322 and MSP43 particularly in thesignificant involvement of biceps femoris and soleuswith relatively spared rectus femoris and tibialis poste-rior muscles However the distribution pattern ishighly diverse even in VCP-linked MSP12324 and alsoin various rimmed vacuolar myopathies including IBMwith GNE mutations and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis Nonetheless the aforementioned resem-blance at least among the cases with MSP3 suggestsa possible association between myotoxicity by themutant hnRNPA1 and vulnerability in each part ofmuscles A possible common feature of the vulnerablemuscles such as expression level of mutatedassociatedproteins muscle fiberndashtype composition and energymetabolism remains to be clarified
Neurology Genetics 7
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Figure 4 Multiple immunofluorescence for hnRNPA1 and related proteins
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the biopsied skeletal muscle of patient III-2 in family 1(AndashH) Aberrant subsarcolemmalperinuclear aggregation (arrowheads) and increased sarcoplasmic retention of heteroge-neous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNPA1) were mainly evident in atrophic fibers Inset in H is a higher magnification of theboxed area (scale bar 5 10 mm) The subsarcolemmalperinuclear hnRNPA1 aggregates were often colocalized with ubiq-uitin (Ub AndashD arrowheads) and SQSTM1p62 (EndashH arrows) Note the close association of hnRNPA1Ub double-positiveaggregation with the rimmed vacuole (AndashD arrows) (IndashL) In the atrophic fibers transactive response DNA binding protein43 kDa (TDP-43)Ub double-positive aggregation (arrowheads) was also observed with the cytoplasmic mislocalization andnuclear depletion of TDP-43 (arrows) (MndashP) The aberrant aggregation of hnRNPA1 was occasionally triple-labeled withphosphorylated TDP-43 and sequestome-1p62 (SQSTM1p62) closely adjacent to rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (QndashX) Therimmed vacuoles were often related to Ub phosphorylated SQSTM1p62 (QndashT arrows) and hnRNPA2B1 (UndashX asterisksindicate a rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fiber) TO-PRO-3 nuclear staining (C G K W) Scale bars 5 50 mm
8 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Muscle histopathology of the 2 families was com-patible with IBM Common features were increasedrimmed vacuoles absence of inflammation andapparent neurogenic change and slight muscle fibernecrosis and regeneration The involvement of
neurogenic atrophy was not completely excludedbecause of angulated fibers (figure 2A) pyknoticnuclear clumps (figure 2B) and several type 1 fibersmaking a small group (figure 2 I and J) whereas ourspecimen lacked the findings of large group atrophy
Figure 5 Multiple immunohistochemistry for various RNA-binding proteins and VCPp97
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the specimens of patient III-2 in family 1 (AndashD) Note theperinuclear and subsarcolemmal aggregation of fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma (FUSTLS) with sparse staining incytoplasm (arrows) whereas FUSTLS mislocalization was scarcely observed (EndashH) In atrophic fibers (asterisks) diffuse cyto-plasmic expression and extranuclearsubsarcolemmal aggregation of TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor 2N (TAF15)were frequently found The aggregation is partially colabeled with ubiquitin (arrowheads) (IndashL) In addition to heterogeneousnuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A1 and A2B1 Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 (EWSR1) and sequestome-1p62(SQSTM1p62) double-positive aggregation was observed in rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (MndashP) Note the multisystem protein-opathy 1ndashlinked valosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 SQSTM1p62 and hnRNPA1 triple-labeled aggregates in the rimmedvacuoles (arrows) (QndashT) In atrophic fibers amyotrophic lateral sclerosisdistal myopathyndashlinked matrin-3 was aberrantlyinvolved in the subsarcolemmal SQSTM1p62-positive aggregates (arrowheads) Scale bars 5 50 mm
Neurology Genetics 9
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
or apparent fiber type grouping These pathologicfindings share a close resemblance to those of IBMwith the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 We haveclearly identified autophagic vacuoles containingmyeloid bodies which often neighbored irregularlyshaped or indented myonuclei Similar pathologicfindings were also reported in patients with a muta-tion in MATR345 In addition enlarged myonuclearpores and amorphous materials along the nuclearmembrane were reported in a patient with MSP3with the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 Thereforethe question of whether this perinuclear pathologyreflects possible dysfunction of RBPs and myonucleiis of interest
Cytoplasmic retention and subsarcolemmalperinu-clear aggregation of the hnRNPA1 protein in degener-ating myofibers were prominent features revealed byimmunohistochemistry (figure 4) The distribution ofhnRNPA1-postitive aggregates corresponds closely toclusters of autophagic vacuoles ultrastructurally More-over the aggregated hnRNPA1 frequently coexistedwith Ub and an autophagic substrate (Ser403-phosphorylated) SQSTM1p62 These congruentevents suggest an aberrantly increased burden triggeredby the hnRNPA1mutation on the intrinsic protein deg-radation system including selective autophagy25
TDP-43 pathology comprising cytoplasmic aggrega-tion and nuclear exclusion was also abundant in ourstudy (figure 4) consistent with previous observationsin patients carrying the pD314V hnRNPA1mutation2
Despite the resemblance mislocalization or clearance ofmyonuclear hnRNPA1A2B1 was barely found in ourspecimens (figure e-1) suggesting sarcoplasmic pathol-ogy rather than defective physiologic function inmyonuclei as a possible primary event by mutanthnRNPA1 Nonetheless the cytoplasmic aggregationand nuclear depletion of hnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1and TDP-43 are to a varying degree pathologic hall-marks in common with muscle degeneration inMSP1ndash3 and in sporadic inclusion body myositis2627
Unexpectedly as unreported observations otherPrLD-harboring proteins such as FET family proteinsalso constituted cytoplasmic aggregates in the degener-ating muscle fibers to a lesser extent on FUSTLS (fig-ure 5) Furthermore even proteins without a PrLDsuch as ALSdistal myopathy-linked45 matrin-3 andMSP1-linked VCPp97 formed cytoplasmic coaggre-gation with hnRNPA1 in this study (figure 5) suggest-ing broad involvement of RBPs and their regulatorsRecent reports uncovered a direct interaction amonghnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 and TDP-4328 They havealso suggested the essential role of VCPp97 in theautophagic clearance of excess assembly of nontranslat-ing messenger ribonucleoprotein complexes to preventpathogenic ribonucleoprotein aggregates2930 Togetherwith the results of previous reports whichever is
mutated ribonucleoprotein granulesrsquo hyperassemblyand their defective clearance may be a major pathome-chanism leading to widespread sequestration of theMSPALS-linked proteins and eventual muscle fiberdegeneration
The sarcolemmal dysferlin expression was variedin the presented cases ranging from decreased to nor-mal immunoreactivity Although comorbid loss ofdysferlin in biopsied muscles is occasionally observedin dystrophinopathy sarcoglycanopathy caveolinop-athy calpainopathy and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis31 loss of physiologic function of dysferlinhas not been reported in MSPs to date Thus thepossible association between dysferlin and hnRNPA1remains to be elucidated
We have reported dominantly inherited isolatedIBM as a novel phenotype of MSP3 Muscle weaknessas an isolated symptom is estimated to account forapproximately 30 of all symptoms in MSP12432 Inaddition to the rare involvement of bone reported inAsian patients withMSP133 PDB itself is infrequent inthe Japanese population34 Therefore such ethnic dif-ferences in genetic background may be associated withthe Japanese MSP3 phenotype The selective involve-ment of skeletal muscles reported in this study shouldbe confirmed particularly by pathologic analyses as acumulative case study Nevertheless the present resultssuggest that mutations in hnRNPA1 and possiblyhnRNPA2B1 will be identified in patients with a puremuscular phenotype specifically presenting etiology-unknown IBM as was the case with hnRNP-associatedgenes reported in Welander distal myopathy and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 1G35ndash37 The precise evalua-tion of these cases will help to elucidate the diseasefrequency penetrance genotypendashphenotype correla-tion and natural history of patients with MSPs Theunresolved issue will be challenged by the developmentof cellular and animal models strictly reflecting MSPs
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSRumiko Izumi principal author designed the study analyzed and inter-
preted the data drafted the manuscript Hitoshi Warita coauthor de-
signed the study performed the immunohistochemical study of
biopsied muscle specimens and revised the manuscript Tetsuya Niihori
and Yoko Aoki coauthors designed the study analyzed and interpreted
the data and revised the manuscript Toshiaki Takahashi Satomi Mitsu-
hashi and Ichizo Nishino coauthors acquired and provided data Maki
Tateyama coauthor performed the light and electron microscopic study
of the biopsied muscles and revised the manuscript Naoki Suzuki and
Masashi Aoki coauthors revised the manuscript Ayumi Nishiyama
coauthor performed the Sanger sequencing Matsuyuki Shirota Ryo
Funayama and Keiko Nakayama coauthors analyzed and interpreted
the data
ACKNOWLEDGMENTThe authors appreciate the cooperation of the patients and their families
and are grateful to Drs Kazuo Kobayashi Hideki Mizuno Takafumi Ha-
segawa Ohito Tano and Hiroshi Kuroda for their fruitful discussions and
Yoko Tateda Kumi Kato Riyo Takahashi Naoko Shimakura Risa Ando
Maya Narisawa Miyuki Tsuda Makiko Nakagawa Mami Kikuchi and
10 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Kiyotaka Kuroda for technical assistance Moreover the support of the
Biomedical Research Core of Tohoku University Graduate School of Med-
icine is also gratefully acknowledged
STUDY FUNDINGThis study was supported by an Intramural Research Grant (26-8) for
Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders of NCNP the grant on Research
on Rare and Intractable Diseases (H26-intractable disease 037 and 082)
from the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan the Ministry
of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan (H26-Nanchitou(Nan)-Ippan-
079) Grants-in-Aid for research on rare and intractable diseases the
Research Committee on Establishment of Novel Treatments for Amyo-
trophic Lateral Sclerosis Grants-in-Aid from the Research Committee
of CNS Degenerative Diseases from the Japanese Ministry of Health
Labor and Welfare Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (25293199
and 26461288) Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from the Japanese Ministry of Education Culture Sports
Science and Technology
DISCLOSUREDr Izumi reports no disclosures Dr Warita has received research sup-
port from Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (26461288 25293199
and 23591229) and Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Japan Dr Niihori and Dr Takahashi report no disclosures Dr Tateya-
ma has received honoraria for lecturing from Daiichi Sankyo company
and has received research support from the Japan Society of the Promo-
tion of Science (KAKENHI 25461265) Dr Suzuki and Dr Nishiyama
report no disclosures Dr Shirota has received research support from
MEXT JSPS KAKENHI (26730148) and JST (14533504) Dr
Funayama has a patent pending on the quantitative ChIP-seq technology
and has received research support from the grant on Research on Rare
and Intractable Diseases from the Ministry of Health Labour and Wel-
fare (Japan) an Intramural Research Grant for Neurological and Psychi-
atric Disorders of NCNP and Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Dr Nakayama
and Dr Mitsuhashi report no disclosures Dr Nishino serves on the sci-
entific advisory board for Nobelpharma Ultragenyx and Genzyme
serves as an editorial board member of Neuromuscular Disorders Neurol-
ogy and Clinical Neuroscience eNeurologicalSci Skeletal Muscle Journal of
Neuromuscular Diseases Journal of the Neurological Sciences Rinsho Shin-
keigaku Chinese Journal of Contemporary Neurology and Neurosurgery and
Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders has a patent pending on
the therapeutic pharmaceutical agent for diseases associated with decrease
in function of GNE protein food composition and food additive has
received honoraria from Genzyme Japan and has received research sup-
port from Genzyme Japan Novartis Japan Astellas JSPS (KAKENHI
httpngneurologyorgcgicollectionall_geneticsAll Geneticsfollowing collection(s) This article along with others on similar topics appears in the
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Neurology All rights reserved Online ISSN 2376-7839an open-access online-only continuous publication journal Copyright copy 2015 American Academy of
is an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology Published since April 2015 it isNeurol Genet
Figure 1 Family pedigrees muscle imaging and genetic investigation
(A) Family pedigrees are shown Filled-in symbols indicate individuals with muscle weakness Empty symbols indicate unaffected individuals without anymedical history or related complaint of muscle weakness dementia or bone disease Asterisks indicate individuals whose DNA was used for this studyIn family 1 DNA was used for whole-exome sequencing and segregating study In family 2 it was used for Sanger sequencing Arrows and arrowheads indi-cate individuals who underwent clinical examination and muscle biopsy respectively (B) Muscle CT was evaluated 8 years after onset in patient III-1 and 10years after onset in the other patients The images show slices of the trunk (first row) proximal arms (second row) and proximal (third row) and distal legs(fourth row) At the level of the trunk all of the patients exhibited moderate-to-severe atrophy in the paraspinal (P) muscles At the level of the proximal armsthe biceps brachii (BB) was commonly affected although the triceps brachii (TB) and brachioradialis (BR) were spared At the level of the proximal legs thebiceps femoris (BF) semimembranosus (SM) adductor magnus (AM) and vastus intermedius (VI) were predominantly affected Less predominant atrophywas observed in the sartorius (SA) semitendinosus (ST) vastus lateralis (VL) and vastus medialis (VM) muscles The atrophy of the semitendinosus muscleof patient IV-1 appeared asymmetrical The rectus femoris (RF) and gracilis (G) muscles were relatively spared in patients III-1 and III-2 whereas they ap-peared to be affected later in patients IV-1 and IV-2 At the level of the distal legs the soleus (S) was severely affected in all patients In contrast the per-oneus longus (PL) gastrocnemius (GC) and tibialis posterior (TP) muscles were relatively spared The tibialis anterior (TA) and extensor digitorum longus (EDL)muscles were affected to varying degrees in each individual (C) The sequence of the identified hnRNPA1 mutation and its conservation among species areshown Sanger sequencing confirmed the heterozygous G to A substitution (indicated by arrows) at the position chr12 54677628 which corresponds to c940GA in exon 9 (NM_031157) The substitution leads to pD314N (NP_112420) and this amino acid is conserved among species
Neurology Genetics 3
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
10 years after the clinical onset Their weakness wasdetected mainly in the iliopsoas quadriceps femorishamstrings tibialis anterior and biceps brachii musclesTendon reflexes were generally decreased No otherabnormality was evident on physical and neurologicexamination Their serumCK levels weremildly elevated(approximately 500 IUL) alkaline phosphatase levelswere within the normal range X-rays did not reveal bonedisorganization Needle EMG in patient IV-2 indicateda generally myogenic pattern without spontaneous activ-ity in the affectedmuscles Motor and sensory nerve con-duction in patient IV-1 was normal
Muscle imaging Muscle CT revealed a similar distri-bution of affected muscles among patients in families1 and 2 presenting a remarkable amyotrophy in the
paraspinal biceps brachii biceps femoris semimem-branosus adductor magnus vastus intermedius andsoleus muscles (figure 1B) Less predominant atrophywas distributed in the sartorius semitendinosus vas-tus lateralis and medialis tibialis anterior and exten-sor digitorum longus muscles This muscle atrophywas essentially symmetrical The triceps brachii bra-chioradialis rectus femoris gracilis peroneus longusgastrocnemius and tibialis posterior muscles were rel-atively spared
Muscle histopathology In family 1 the obvious find-ing in patients III-1 and III-2 was rimmed vacuoleswhich were found in 70 and 37 of myofibersrespectively The rimmed vacuoles were mainlyidentified in atrophic fibers (figure 2C) In addition
Table 1 Clinical laboratory and electrophysiologic data of the affected individuals
Neck flex BB IP GM ham Deltoid BB IP QF foot ext BB wrist flex IP QF hamfoot ext
Minor Neck flex deltoid TBfoot flex
Deltoid TB QF foot flexand ext
TB ham foot flex Deltoid TB wrist ext EDLfoot flex
Spared Facial wrist flex and ext Facial wrist flex and ext Neck SCM trapezius facialwrist flex and ext
Facial
Bulbar involvement No No No No
Cardiac involvement No No No No
Respiratory involvement No No No No
Complications
Cognitive impairment No No No No
UMN signs No No No No
Bone deformitypain No No No No
Other findings Ankle joint contracture Snout reflex Ankle joint contracture
EMG
Spontaneous activity No Fib PSW NE No
MUP morphology Myopathic Myopathic NE Myopathic
Nerve conduction study Normal Normal Normal NE
Laboratory data
Alkaline phosphatase IUL 188 311 250 224
Ca mgdL 103 92 90 NE
Creatine kinase IUL 940 1065 512 575
Abbreviations BB 5 biceps brachii EDL 5 extensor digitorum longus ext 5 extensor Fib 5 fibrillation potentials flex 5 flexor GM 5 gluteus maximham 5 hamstrings IP 5 iliopsoas MUP 5 motor unit potential NE 5 not evaluated PSW 5 positive sharp waves QF 5 quadriceps femoris SCM 5
sternocleidomastoideus TB 5 triceps brachii UMN 5 upper motor neuron
4 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
chronic myopathic changes including increasedendomysial fibrosis highly increased variability inthe size of myofibers and increased central nucleiwere found (figure 2A) There was a small numberof regenerated fibers In contrast inflammatorycell infiltration and apparent neurogenic changewere absent Immunohistochemistry revealed thata-sarcoglycan a-dystroglycan caveolin-3 emerinand dystrophin were normally expressed (data notshown) Dysferlin expression was decreased inpatient III-115 and normal in patient III-2 (data notshown) Electron microscopic examination of thepatient III-2 specimen revealed the presence ofmembrane-bound vacuoles containing myeloid bodies(figure 3 A and B) The vacuoles were located amongmyofibrils and were often adjacent to irregularly shapedor indented myonuclei (figure 3 CndashF) We could notfind nuclear or cytoplasmic tubulofilamentousinclusions in this study
Muscle pathology of patients IV-1 and IV-4 infamily 2 was essentially identical to that observed inpatients in family 1 Rimmed vacuoles were detectedin atrophic fibers along with a chronic myopathicchange (figure 2D) Nicotinamide adenine dinucleo-tidendashtetrazolium reductase staining disclosed disorga-nization of the intermyofibrillar network (figure 2F)Inflammation and apparent neurogenic changes werenot detected
Genetic investigationWe identified heterozygous non-synonymous variants which were common amongpatients and absent in unaffected individuals usingwhole-exome sequencing After filtering against the1000 Genomes (httpwww1000genomesorg)and Human Genetic Variation Databases (httpwwwgenomemedkyoto-uacjpSnpDB) 3 novel(ie absent according to the 2 aforementioneddatabases) variants were identified c76GApD26N in HIST1H2BJ encoding histone H2Btype J c202CT pR68W in HIST1H4I encodinghistone H4I and c940GA pD314N in hnRNPA1Because the pD314N and pD314V mutations inhnRNPA1 are known to cause familial ALS andMSP3 respectively2 we then performed segregationanalysis on this candidate through Sanger sequencingin 6 family members analyzed by exome sequencingThis candidate (c940GA in hnRNPA1 [NM_031157]) was detected in all patients (n 5 4) andwas not detected in any of the unaffected familymembers (n 5 2) or in 190 ethnically matchedcontrol individuals (380 chromosomes) (figure 1C)These results suggested that the rare mutationidentified in hnRNPA1 segregated with the disease infamily 1
All previously reported mutations in hnRNPA1and hnRNPA2B1 were consistently located on the
Figure 2 Muscle histopathology
Hematoxylin amp eosin (A B) modified Gomori trichrome (C D) Nicotinamide adenine dinucle-otidendashtetrazolium reductase (E F) cytochrome c oxidase (COX) (G H) serial and ATPasepH45 (I J) staining of the biopsied muscle samples from the biceps brachii of patient III-2 infamily 1 (left panels A C E G I) and the triceps brachii of patient IV-1 in family 2 (rightpanels B D F H J) are shown Hypertrophic fibers larger than 100 mm and angulated orrounded atrophic fibers are shown (A B) Highly increased central nuclei and a fraction offibers with pyknotic nuclear clumps are present (B) Rimmed vacuoles are located in atrophicfibers which tend to make small groups (C D) Disorganization of the myofibrillar network isobserved (F) COX staining does not display complete COX-deficient myofibers (G H) OnATPase pH45 the type distribution is almost equal and atrophic fibers are observed in bothtype 1 and type 2 fibers (I J) Type grouping is essentially negative except for the subtlefinding of several type 1 fibers making a small group (I J) Scale bars 5 100 mm
Neurology Genetics 5
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
core PrLD of the hnRNPs2 We then analyzed thesequence-encoding core PrLDs of hnRNPA1 (nucleo-tides 697ndash972 in NM_031157 which encode co-dons 233ndash324 in NP_112420) and hnRNPA2B1(nucleotides 796ndash909 in NM_002137 whichencode codons 266ndash303 in NP_002128) in patientIII-1 in family 1 and patients IV-1 and IV-2 in family2 Sanger sequencing confirmed that pD314N
in hnRNPA1 is the only mutation across theabove-mentioned sequence in patient III-1 in family1 and revealed that patients IV-1 and IV-2 in family 2also harbor the same mutation
Multiple immunohistochemistry To define hnRNPA1protein localization with its related proteins we per-formed multiple immunofluorescence in biopsied
Figure 3 Ultrastructural analysis of muscle
Ultrastructural findings of patient III-2 in family 1 are shown The enclosed section of E is enlarged in F The autophagicvacuoles containing myeloid bodies and glycogen granules are located among myofibrils (A B) and neighboring myonuclei(CndashF) Myonuclei (indicated by N) located in subsarcolemma (C) or sarcoplasm (D) are irregularly shaped and have indentation(an arrow) Scale bars are embedded in each panel
6 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
muscle specimens from patient III-2 in family 1samples from other patients in the 2 families wereunavailable The major finding was sarcoplasmicsubsarcolemmal and perinuclear aggregation ofhnRNPA1 in atrophic fibers and in fibers withrimmed vacuoles (figure 4 AndashH) Atrophic fibersfrequently retained transactive response DNA-bindingprotein 43 kDa (TDP-43)ubiquitin (Ub) double-positive cytoplasmic aggregates with the nucleardepletion of TDP-43 (figure 4 IndashL) In associationwith multiple rimmed vacuoles the mislocalizedTDP-43 was occasionally phosphorylated at Ser409Ser410 residues it also colocalized with sequestome-1(SQSTM1p62) and hnRNPA1 (figure 4 MndashP) Therimmed vacuoles were Ub- and SQSTM1p62-positive some were stained with anti-SQSTM1p62phosphorylated at the Ser403 residue (figure 4QndashT) The MSP2-linked gene product hnRNPA2B1was also detected in Ub-positive aggregates in atrophicor rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fibers (figure 4 UndashX)hnRNPA1 and A2B1 were generally colocalized(figure e-1 IndashL) a discrete aggregation of the 2hnRNPs occurred infrequently (figure e-1 MndashP)Mislocalization and deprivation of hnRNPA1 orhnRNPA2B1 from the myonuclei were rarely foundin extremely atrophied fibers (figure e-1 MndashP)Neonatal myosin heavy chainndashpositive regenerativefibers also exhibited the hnRNPA1 aggregationpathology (data not shown)
On the basis of the aforementioned findings withhnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 TDP-43 SQSTM1p62and Ub pathology we further examined the possiblecoaggregationmislocalization ofMSPALS-linked pro-teins Fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma(FUSTLS) TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor2N and Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 knownas FET family proteins harboring the PrLD were co-localized with Ub- or SQSTM1p62-positive sarco-plasmic aggregates in atrophic fibers (figure 5 AndashH)and in rimmed vacuoles (figure 5 IndashL) HoweverFUSTLS aggregation was substantially minimalnuclear clearance of the FET proteins was lackingValosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 was also colo-calized with SQSTM1p62-positive hnRNPA1 aggre-gates closely related to rimmed vacuoles (figure 5MndashP) Furthermore matrin-3 formed subsarcolemmalSQSTM1p62-labeled clumps (figure 5 QndashT) How-ever loss of matrin-3 immunoreactivity in the myonu-clei was essentially absent All aberrant aggregationsobserved in patient III-2 in family 1 were negative incontrol specimens (data not shown)
DISCUSSION We found that the missense mutationc940GA pD314N in hnRNPA1 segregated withIBM an additional pure muscular phenotype ofMSP3 in 2 unrelated Japanese families The identified
mutation in hnRNPA1 was considered to be patho-genic for the following reasons (1) exome sequencingrevealed that this was one of the best candidate muta-tions after filtering single nucleotide polymorphismsand indels (2) no pathogenic variants were detectedamong known causative genes of dominantly inheritedmyopathy with rimmed vacuoles such as VCP1
MYH216 MYOT17 DES18 CRYAB19 TTN20
PABP221 and MATR34 in exome sequencing (3) itwas common between 2 independent families withdominantly inherited IBM (4) it was not detected in190 ethnically matched control individuals and (5)this mutation and the substitute on the identical resi-due are known to be causative of familial ALS andMSP3 respectively2
All patients included in this study had nearly identicalclinical features such as autosomal dominant inheritancewith probable high penetrance late adult-onset slowlyprogressive myopathy with predominant limb-girdleweakness absence of cognitivemotor neuronbone tis-sue involvement mild-to-moderate elevation of serumCK and histologic findings compatible with IBM (table1 figure 2) The pD314N mutation in hnRNPA1 wasreported to cause familial ALS in a previous report2 Incontrast to that report motor neuron disease was fun-damentally negative in our patients The different sub-stitute on the identical residue pD314V in hnRNPA1was linked to late-onset autosomal dominant limb-girdlemuscular dystrophy accompanied by PDB222 The mus-cular phenotype caused by the hnRNPA1 pD314Vmutation is similar to that of our patients with regardto age at onset progression course and affected muscledistribution However the bone involvement in patientswith pD314V mutations accentuates the phenotypicdifference between the previously reported cases andthe cases presented in this study In this context theisolated muscle involvement is extremely distinct fromthat of the previously reported cases and is believed to bea novel pure phenotype of MSP3
The affectedmuscle distribution revealed bymuscleimaging is similar to that of previously reported pa-tients with MSP322 and MSP43 particularly in thesignificant involvement of biceps femoris and soleuswith relatively spared rectus femoris and tibialis poste-rior muscles However the distribution pattern ishighly diverse even in VCP-linked MSP12324 and alsoin various rimmed vacuolar myopathies including IBMwith GNE mutations and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis Nonetheless the aforementioned resem-blance at least among the cases with MSP3 suggestsa possible association between myotoxicity by themutant hnRNPA1 and vulnerability in each part ofmuscles A possible common feature of the vulnerablemuscles such as expression level of mutatedassociatedproteins muscle fiberndashtype composition and energymetabolism remains to be clarified
Neurology Genetics 7
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Figure 4 Multiple immunofluorescence for hnRNPA1 and related proteins
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the biopsied skeletal muscle of patient III-2 in family 1(AndashH) Aberrant subsarcolemmalperinuclear aggregation (arrowheads) and increased sarcoplasmic retention of heteroge-neous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNPA1) were mainly evident in atrophic fibers Inset in H is a higher magnification of theboxed area (scale bar 5 10 mm) The subsarcolemmalperinuclear hnRNPA1 aggregates were often colocalized with ubiq-uitin (Ub AndashD arrowheads) and SQSTM1p62 (EndashH arrows) Note the close association of hnRNPA1Ub double-positiveaggregation with the rimmed vacuole (AndashD arrows) (IndashL) In the atrophic fibers transactive response DNA binding protein43 kDa (TDP-43)Ub double-positive aggregation (arrowheads) was also observed with the cytoplasmic mislocalization andnuclear depletion of TDP-43 (arrows) (MndashP) The aberrant aggregation of hnRNPA1 was occasionally triple-labeled withphosphorylated TDP-43 and sequestome-1p62 (SQSTM1p62) closely adjacent to rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (QndashX) Therimmed vacuoles were often related to Ub phosphorylated SQSTM1p62 (QndashT arrows) and hnRNPA2B1 (UndashX asterisksindicate a rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fiber) TO-PRO-3 nuclear staining (C G K W) Scale bars 5 50 mm
8 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Muscle histopathology of the 2 families was com-patible with IBM Common features were increasedrimmed vacuoles absence of inflammation andapparent neurogenic change and slight muscle fibernecrosis and regeneration The involvement of
neurogenic atrophy was not completely excludedbecause of angulated fibers (figure 2A) pyknoticnuclear clumps (figure 2B) and several type 1 fibersmaking a small group (figure 2 I and J) whereas ourspecimen lacked the findings of large group atrophy
Figure 5 Multiple immunohistochemistry for various RNA-binding proteins and VCPp97
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the specimens of patient III-2 in family 1 (AndashD) Note theperinuclear and subsarcolemmal aggregation of fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma (FUSTLS) with sparse staining incytoplasm (arrows) whereas FUSTLS mislocalization was scarcely observed (EndashH) In atrophic fibers (asterisks) diffuse cyto-plasmic expression and extranuclearsubsarcolemmal aggregation of TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor 2N (TAF15)were frequently found The aggregation is partially colabeled with ubiquitin (arrowheads) (IndashL) In addition to heterogeneousnuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A1 and A2B1 Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 (EWSR1) and sequestome-1p62(SQSTM1p62) double-positive aggregation was observed in rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (MndashP) Note the multisystem protein-opathy 1ndashlinked valosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 SQSTM1p62 and hnRNPA1 triple-labeled aggregates in the rimmedvacuoles (arrows) (QndashT) In atrophic fibers amyotrophic lateral sclerosisdistal myopathyndashlinked matrin-3 was aberrantlyinvolved in the subsarcolemmal SQSTM1p62-positive aggregates (arrowheads) Scale bars 5 50 mm
Neurology Genetics 9
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
or apparent fiber type grouping These pathologicfindings share a close resemblance to those of IBMwith the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 We haveclearly identified autophagic vacuoles containingmyeloid bodies which often neighbored irregularlyshaped or indented myonuclei Similar pathologicfindings were also reported in patients with a muta-tion in MATR345 In addition enlarged myonuclearpores and amorphous materials along the nuclearmembrane were reported in a patient with MSP3with the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 Thereforethe question of whether this perinuclear pathologyreflects possible dysfunction of RBPs and myonucleiis of interest
Cytoplasmic retention and subsarcolemmalperinu-clear aggregation of the hnRNPA1 protein in degener-ating myofibers were prominent features revealed byimmunohistochemistry (figure 4) The distribution ofhnRNPA1-postitive aggregates corresponds closely toclusters of autophagic vacuoles ultrastructurally More-over the aggregated hnRNPA1 frequently coexistedwith Ub and an autophagic substrate (Ser403-phosphorylated) SQSTM1p62 These congruentevents suggest an aberrantly increased burden triggeredby the hnRNPA1mutation on the intrinsic protein deg-radation system including selective autophagy25
TDP-43 pathology comprising cytoplasmic aggrega-tion and nuclear exclusion was also abundant in ourstudy (figure 4) consistent with previous observationsin patients carrying the pD314V hnRNPA1mutation2
Despite the resemblance mislocalization or clearance ofmyonuclear hnRNPA1A2B1 was barely found in ourspecimens (figure e-1) suggesting sarcoplasmic pathol-ogy rather than defective physiologic function inmyonuclei as a possible primary event by mutanthnRNPA1 Nonetheless the cytoplasmic aggregationand nuclear depletion of hnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1and TDP-43 are to a varying degree pathologic hall-marks in common with muscle degeneration inMSP1ndash3 and in sporadic inclusion body myositis2627
Unexpectedly as unreported observations otherPrLD-harboring proteins such as FET family proteinsalso constituted cytoplasmic aggregates in the degener-ating muscle fibers to a lesser extent on FUSTLS (fig-ure 5) Furthermore even proteins without a PrLDsuch as ALSdistal myopathy-linked45 matrin-3 andMSP1-linked VCPp97 formed cytoplasmic coaggre-gation with hnRNPA1 in this study (figure 5) suggest-ing broad involvement of RBPs and their regulatorsRecent reports uncovered a direct interaction amonghnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 and TDP-4328 They havealso suggested the essential role of VCPp97 in theautophagic clearance of excess assembly of nontranslat-ing messenger ribonucleoprotein complexes to preventpathogenic ribonucleoprotein aggregates2930 Togetherwith the results of previous reports whichever is
mutated ribonucleoprotein granulesrsquo hyperassemblyand their defective clearance may be a major pathome-chanism leading to widespread sequestration of theMSPALS-linked proteins and eventual muscle fiberdegeneration
The sarcolemmal dysferlin expression was variedin the presented cases ranging from decreased to nor-mal immunoreactivity Although comorbid loss ofdysferlin in biopsied muscles is occasionally observedin dystrophinopathy sarcoglycanopathy caveolinop-athy calpainopathy and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis31 loss of physiologic function of dysferlinhas not been reported in MSPs to date Thus thepossible association between dysferlin and hnRNPA1remains to be elucidated
We have reported dominantly inherited isolatedIBM as a novel phenotype of MSP3 Muscle weaknessas an isolated symptom is estimated to account forapproximately 30 of all symptoms in MSP12432 Inaddition to the rare involvement of bone reported inAsian patients withMSP133 PDB itself is infrequent inthe Japanese population34 Therefore such ethnic dif-ferences in genetic background may be associated withthe Japanese MSP3 phenotype The selective involve-ment of skeletal muscles reported in this study shouldbe confirmed particularly by pathologic analyses as acumulative case study Nevertheless the present resultssuggest that mutations in hnRNPA1 and possiblyhnRNPA2B1 will be identified in patients with a puremuscular phenotype specifically presenting etiology-unknown IBM as was the case with hnRNP-associatedgenes reported in Welander distal myopathy and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 1G35ndash37 The precise evalua-tion of these cases will help to elucidate the diseasefrequency penetrance genotypendashphenotype correla-tion and natural history of patients with MSPs Theunresolved issue will be challenged by the developmentof cellular and animal models strictly reflecting MSPs
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSRumiko Izumi principal author designed the study analyzed and inter-
preted the data drafted the manuscript Hitoshi Warita coauthor de-
signed the study performed the immunohistochemical study of
biopsied muscle specimens and revised the manuscript Tetsuya Niihori
and Yoko Aoki coauthors designed the study analyzed and interpreted
the data and revised the manuscript Toshiaki Takahashi Satomi Mitsu-
hashi and Ichizo Nishino coauthors acquired and provided data Maki
Tateyama coauthor performed the light and electron microscopic study
of the biopsied muscles and revised the manuscript Naoki Suzuki and
Masashi Aoki coauthors revised the manuscript Ayumi Nishiyama
coauthor performed the Sanger sequencing Matsuyuki Shirota Ryo
Funayama and Keiko Nakayama coauthors analyzed and interpreted
the data
ACKNOWLEDGMENTThe authors appreciate the cooperation of the patients and their families
and are grateful to Drs Kazuo Kobayashi Hideki Mizuno Takafumi Ha-
segawa Ohito Tano and Hiroshi Kuroda for their fruitful discussions and
Yoko Tateda Kumi Kato Riyo Takahashi Naoko Shimakura Risa Ando
Maya Narisawa Miyuki Tsuda Makiko Nakagawa Mami Kikuchi and
10 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Kiyotaka Kuroda for technical assistance Moreover the support of the
Biomedical Research Core of Tohoku University Graduate School of Med-
icine is also gratefully acknowledged
STUDY FUNDINGThis study was supported by an Intramural Research Grant (26-8) for
Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders of NCNP the grant on Research
on Rare and Intractable Diseases (H26-intractable disease 037 and 082)
from the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan the Ministry
of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan (H26-Nanchitou(Nan)-Ippan-
079) Grants-in-Aid for research on rare and intractable diseases the
Research Committee on Establishment of Novel Treatments for Amyo-
trophic Lateral Sclerosis Grants-in-Aid from the Research Committee
of CNS Degenerative Diseases from the Japanese Ministry of Health
Labor and Welfare Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (25293199
and 26461288) Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from the Japanese Ministry of Education Culture Sports
Science and Technology
DISCLOSUREDr Izumi reports no disclosures Dr Warita has received research sup-
port from Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (26461288 25293199
and 23591229) and Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Japan Dr Niihori and Dr Takahashi report no disclosures Dr Tateya-
ma has received honoraria for lecturing from Daiichi Sankyo company
and has received research support from the Japan Society of the Promo-
tion of Science (KAKENHI 25461265) Dr Suzuki and Dr Nishiyama
report no disclosures Dr Shirota has received research support from
MEXT JSPS KAKENHI (26730148) and JST (14533504) Dr
Funayama has a patent pending on the quantitative ChIP-seq technology
and has received research support from the grant on Research on Rare
and Intractable Diseases from the Ministry of Health Labour and Wel-
fare (Japan) an Intramural Research Grant for Neurological and Psychi-
atric Disorders of NCNP and Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Dr Nakayama
and Dr Mitsuhashi report no disclosures Dr Nishino serves on the sci-
entific advisory board for Nobelpharma Ultragenyx and Genzyme
serves as an editorial board member of Neuromuscular Disorders Neurol-
ogy and Clinical Neuroscience eNeurologicalSci Skeletal Muscle Journal of
Neuromuscular Diseases Journal of the Neurological Sciences Rinsho Shin-
keigaku Chinese Journal of Contemporary Neurology and Neurosurgery and
Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders has a patent pending on
the therapeutic pharmaceutical agent for diseases associated with decrease
in function of GNE protein food composition and food additive has
received honoraria from Genzyme Japan and has received research sup-
port from Genzyme Japan Novartis Japan Astellas JSPS (KAKENHI
httpngneurologyorgcgicollectionall_geneticsAll Geneticsfollowing collection(s) This article along with others on similar topics appears in the
Permissions amp Licensing
httpngneurologyorgmiscaboutxhtmlpermissionsits entirety can be found online atInformation about reproducing this article in parts (figurestables) or in
Reprints
httpngneurologyorgmiscaddirxhtmlreprintsusInformation about ordering reprints can be found online
Neurology All rights reserved Online ISSN 2376-7839an open-access online-only continuous publication journal Copyright copy 2015 American Academy of
is an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology Published since April 2015 it isNeurol Genet
10 years after the clinical onset Their weakness wasdetected mainly in the iliopsoas quadriceps femorishamstrings tibialis anterior and biceps brachii musclesTendon reflexes were generally decreased No otherabnormality was evident on physical and neurologicexamination Their serumCK levels weremildly elevated(approximately 500 IUL) alkaline phosphatase levelswere within the normal range X-rays did not reveal bonedisorganization Needle EMG in patient IV-2 indicateda generally myogenic pattern without spontaneous activ-ity in the affectedmuscles Motor and sensory nerve con-duction in patient IV-1 was normal
Muscle imaging Muscle CT revealed a similar distri-bution of affected muscles among patients in families1 and 2 presenting a remarkable amyotrophy in the
paraspinal biceps brachii biceps femoris semimem-branosus adductor magnus vastus intermedius andsoleus muscles (figure 1B) Less predominant atrophywas distributed in the sartorius semitendinosus vas-tus lateralis and medialis tibialis anterior and exten-sor digitorum longus muscles This muscle atrophywas essentially symmetrical The triceps brachii bra-chioradialis rectus femoris gracilis peroneus longusgastrocnemius and tibialis posterior muscles were rel-atively spared
Muscle histopathology In family 1 the obvious find-ing in patients III-1 and III-2 was rimmed vacuoleswhich were found in 70 and 37 of myofibersrespectively The rimmed vacuoles were mainlyidentified in atrophic fibers (figure 2C) In addition
Table 1 Clinical laboratory and electrophysiologic data of the affected individuals
Neck flex BB IP GM ham Deltoid BB IP QF foot ext BB wrist flex IP QF hamfoot ext
Minor Neck flex deltoid TBfoot flex
Deltoid TB QF foot flexand ext
TB ham foot flex Deltoid TB wrist ext EDLfoot flex
Spared Facial wrist flex and ext Facial wrist flex and ext Neck SCM trapezius facialwrist flex and ext
Facial
Bulbar involvement No No No No
Cardiac involvement No No No No
Respiratory involvement No No No No
Complications
Cognitive impairment No No No No
UMN signs No No No No
Bone deformitypain No No No No
Other findings Ankle joint contracture Snout reflex Ankle joint contracture
EMG
Spontaneous activity No Fib PSW NE No
MUP morphology Myopathic Myopathic NE Myopathic
Nerve conduction study Normal Normal Normal NE
Laboratory data
Alkaline phosphatase IUL 188 311 250 224
Ca mgdL 103 92 90 NE
Creatine kinase IUL 940 1065 512 575
Abbreviations BB 5 biceps brachii EDL 5 extensor digitorum longus ext 5 extensor Fib 5 fibrillation potentials flex 5 flexor GM 5 gluteus maximham 5 hamstrings IP 5 iliopsoas MUP 5 motor unit potential NE 5 not evaluated PSW 5 positive sharp waves QF 5 quadriceps femoris SCM 5
sternocleidomastoideus TB 5 triceps brachii UMN 5 upper motor neuron
4 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
chronic myopathic changes including increasedendomysial fibrosis highly increased variability inthe size of myofibers and increased central nucleiwere found (figure 2A) There was a small numberof regenerated fibers In contrast inflammatorycell infiltration and apparent neurogenic changewere absent Immunohistochemistry revealed thata-sarcoglycan a-dystroglycan caveolin-3 emerinand dystrophin were normally expressed (data notshown) Dysferlin expression was decreased inpatient III-115 and normal in patient III-2 (data notshown) Electron microscopic examination of thepatient III-2 specimen revealed the presence ofmembrane-bound vacuoles containing myeloid bodies(figure 3 A and B) The vacuoles were located amongmyofibrils and were often adjacent to irregularly shapedor indented myonuclei (figure 3 CndashF) We could notfind nuclear or cytoplasmic tubulofilamentousinclusions in this study
Muscle pathology of patients IV-1 and IV-4 infamily 2 was essentially identical to that observed inpatients in family 1 Rimmed vacuoles were detectedin atrophic fibers along with a chronic myopathicchange (figure 2D) Nicotinamide adenine dinucleo-tidendashtetrazolium reductase staining disclosed disorga-nization of the intermyofibrillar network (figure 2F)Inflammation and apparent neurogenic changes werenot detected
Genetic investigationWe identified heterozygous non-synonymous variants which were common amongpatients and absent in unaffected individuals usingwhole-exome sequencing After filtering against the1000 Genomes (httpwww1000genomesorg)and Human Genetic Variation Databases (httpwwwgenomemedkyoto-uacjpSnpDB) 3 novel(ie absent according to the 2 aforementioneddatabases) variants were identified c76GApD26N in HIST1H2BJ encoding histone H2Btype J c202CT pR68W in HIST1H4I encodinghistone H4I and c940GA pD314N in hnRNPA1Because the pD314N and pD314V mutations inhnRNPA1 are known to cause familial ALS andMSP3 respectively2 we then performed segregationanalysis on this candidate through Sanger sequencingin 6 family members analyzed by exome sequencingThis candidate (c940GA in hnRNPA1 [NM_031157]) was detected in all patients (n 5 4) andwas not detected in any of the unaffected familymembers (n 5 2) or in 190 ethnically matchedcontrol individuals (380 chromosomes) (figure 1C)These results suggested that the rare mutationidentified in hnRNPA1 segregated with the disease infamily 1
All previously reported mutations in hnRNPA1and hnRNPA2B1 were consistently located on the
Figure 2 Muscle histopathology
Hematoxylin amp eosin (A B) modified Gomori trichrome (C D) Nicotinamide adenine dinucle-otidendashtetrazolium reductase (E F) cytochrome c oxidase (COX) (G H) serial and ATPasepH45 (I J) staining of the biopsied muscle samples from the biceps brachii of patient III-2 infamily 1 (left panels A C E G I) and the triceps brachii of patient IV-1 in family 2 (rightpanels B D F H J) are shown Hypertrophic fibers larger than 100 mm and angulated orrounded atrophic fibers are shown (A B) Highly increased central nuclei and a fraction offibers with pyknotic nuclear clumps are present (B) Rimmed vacuoles are located in atrophicfibers which tend to make small groups (C D) Disorganization of the myofibrillar network isobserved (F) COX staining does not display complete COX-deficient myofibers (G H) OnATPase pH45 the type distribution is almost equal and atrophic fibers are observed in bothtype 1 and type 2 fibers (I J) Type grouping is essentially negative except for the subtlefinding of several type 1 fibers making a small group (I J) Scale bars 5 100 mm
Neurology Genetics 5
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
core PrLD of the hnRNPs2 We then analyzed thesequence-encoding core PrLDs of hnRNPA1 (nucleo-tides 697ndash972 in NM_031157 which encode co-dons 233ndash324 in NP_112420) and hnRNPA2B1(nucleotides 796ndash909 in NM_002137 whichencode codons 266ndash303 in NP_002128) in patientIII-1 in family 1 and patients IV-1 and IV-2 in family2 Sanger sequencing confirmed that pD314N
in hnRNPA1 is the only mutation across theabove-mentioned sequence in patient III-1 in family1 and revealed that patients IV-1 and IV-2 in family 2also harbor the same mutation
Multiple immunohistochemistry To define hnRNPA1protein localization with its related proteins we per-formed multiple immunofluorescence in biopsied
Figure 3 Ultrastructural analysis of muscle
Ultrastructural findings of patient III-2 in family 1 are shown The enclosed section of E is enlarged in F The autophagicvacuoles containing myeloid bodies and glycogen granules are located among myofibrils (A B) and neighboring myonuclei(CndashF) Myonuclei (indicated by N) located in subsarcolemma (C) or sarcoplasm (D) are irregularly shaped and have indentation(an arrow) Scale bars are embedded in each panel
6 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
muscle specimens from patient III-2 in family 1samples from other patients in the 2 families wereunavailable The major finding was sarcoplasmicsubsarcolemmal and perinuclear aggregation ofhnRNPA1 in atrophic fibers and in fibers withrimmed vacuoles (figure 4 AndashH) Atrophic fibersfrequently retained transactive response DNA-bindingprotein 43 kDa (TDP-43)ubiquitin (Ub) double-positive cytoplasmic aggregates with the nucleardepletion of TDP-43 (figure 4 IndashL) In associationwith multiple rimmed vacuoles the mislocalizedTDP-43 was occasionally phosphorylated at Ser409Ser410 residues it also colocalized with sequestome-1(SQSTM1p62) and hnRNPA1 (figure 4 MndashP) Therimmed vacuoles were Ub- and SQSTM1p62-positive some were stained with anti-SQSTM1p62phosphorylated at the Ser403 residue (figure 4QndashT) The MSP2-linked gene product hnRNPA2B1was also detected in Ub-positive aggregates in atrophicor rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fibers (figure 4 UndashX)hnRNPA1 and A2B1 were generally colocalized(figure e-1 IndashL) a discrete aggregation of the 2hnRNPs occurred infrequently (figure e-1 MndashP)Mislocalization and deprivation of hnRNPA1 orhnRNPA2B1 from the myonuclei were rarely foundin extremely atrophied fibers (figure e-1 MndashP)Neonatal myosin heavy chainndashpositive regenerativefibers also exhibited the hnRNPA1 aggregationpathology (data not shown)
On the basis of the aforementioned findings withhnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 TDP-43 SQSTM1p62and Ub pathology we further examined the possiblecoaggregationmislocalization ofMSPALS-linked pro-teins Fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma(FUSTLS) TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor2N and Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 knownas FET family proteins harboring the PrLD were co-localized with Ub- or SQSTM1p62-positive sarco-plasmic aggregates in atrophic fibers (figure 5 AndashH)and in rimmed vacuoles (figure 5 IndashL) HoweverFUSTLS aggregation was substantially minimalnuclear clearance of the FET proteins was lackingValosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 was also colo-calized with SQSTM1p62-positive hnRNPA1 aggre-gates closely related to rimmed vacuoles (figure 5MndashP) Furthermore matrin-3 formed subsarcolemmalSQSTM1p62-labeled clumps (figure 5 QndashT) How-ever loss of matrin-3 immunoreactivity in the myonu-clei was essentially absent All aberrant aggregationsobserved in patient III-2 in family 1 were negative incontrol specimens (data not shown)
DISCUSSION We found that the missense mutationc940GA pD314N in hnRNPA1 segregated withIBM an additional pure muscular phenotype ofMSP3 in 2 unrelated Japanese families The identified
mutation in hnRNPA1 was considered to be patho-genic for the following reasons (1) exome sequencingrevealed that this was one of the best candidate muta-tions after filtering single nucleotide polymorphismsand indels (2) no pathogenic variants were detectedamong known causative genes of dominantly inheritedmyopathy with rimmed vacuoles such as VCP1
MYH216 MYOT17 DES18 CRYAB19 TTN20
PABP221 and MATR34 in exome sequencing (3) itwas common between 2 independent families withdominantly inherited IBM (4) it was not detected in190 ethnically matched control individuals and (5)this mutation and the substitute on the identical resi-due are known to be causative of familial ALS andMSP3 respectively2
All patients included in this study had nearly identicalclinical features such as autosomal dominant inheritancewith probable high penetrance late adult-onset slowlyprogressive myopathy with predominant limb-girdleweakness absence of cognitivemotor neuronbone tis-sue involvement mild-to-moderate elevation of serumCK and histologic findings compatible with IBM (table1 figure 2) The pD314N mutation in hnRNPA1 wasreported to cause familial ALS in a previous report2 Incontrast to that report motor neuron disease was fun-damentally negative in our patients The different sub-stitute on the identical residue pD314V in hnRNPA1was linked to late-onset autosomal dominant limb-girdlemuscular dystrophy accompanied by PDB222 The mus-cular phenotype caused by the hnRNPA1 pD314Vmutation is similar to that of our patients with regardto age at onset progression course and affected muscledistribution However the bone involvement in patientswith pD314V mutations accentuates the phenotypicdifference between the previously reported cases andthe cases presented in this study In this context theisolated muscle involvement is extremely distinct fromthat of the previously reported cases and is believed to bea novel pure phenotype of MSP3
The affectedmuscle distribution revealed bymuscleimaging is similar to that of previously reported pa-tients with MSP322 and MSP43 particularly in thesignificant involvement of biceps femoris and soleuswith relatively spared rectus femoris and tibialis poste-rior muscles However the distribution pattern ishighly diverse even in VCP-linked MSP12324 and alsoin various rimmed vacuolar myopathies including IBMwith GNE mutations and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis Nonetheless the aforementioned resem-blance at least among the cases with MSP3 suggestsa possible association between myotoxicity by themutant hnRNPA1 and vulnerability in each part ofmuscles A possible common feature of the vulnerablemuscles such as expression level of mutatedassociatedproteins muscle fiberndashtype composition and energymetabolism remains to be clarified
Neurology Genetics 7
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Figure 4 Multiple immunofluorescence for hnRNPA1 and related proteins
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the biopsied skeletal muscle of patient III-2 in family 1(AndashH) Aberrant subsarcolemmalperinuclear aggregation (arrowheads) and increased sarcoplasmic retention of heteroge-neous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNPA1) were mainly evident in atrophic fibers Inset in H is a higher magnification of theboxed area (scale bar 5 10 mm) The subsarcolemmalperinuclear hnRNPA1 aggregates were often colocalized with ubiq-uitin (Ub AndashD arrowheads) and SQSTM1p62 (EndashH arrows) Note the close association of hnRNPA1Ub double-positiveaggregation with the rimmed vacuole (AndashD arrows) (IndashL) In the atrophic fibers transactive response DNA binding protein43 kDa (TDP-43)Ub double-positive aggregation (arrowheads) was also observed with the cytoplasmic mislocalization andnuclear depletion of TDP-43 (arrows) (MndashP) The aberrant aggregation of hnRNPA1 was occasionally triple-labeled withphosphorylated TDP-43 and sequestome-1p62 (SQSTM1p62) closely adjacent to rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (QndashX) Therimmed vacuoles were often related to Ub phosphorylated SQSTM1p62 (QndashT arrows) and hnRNPA2B1 (UndashX asterisksindicate a rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fiber) TO-PRO-3 nuclear staining (C G K W) Scale bars 5 50 mm
8 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Muscle histopathology of the 2 families was com-patible with IBM Common features were increasedrimmed vacuoles absence of inflammation andapparent neurogenic change and slight muscle fibernecrosis and regeneration The involvement of
neurogenic atrophy was not completely excludedbecause of angulated fibers (figure 2A) pyknoticnuclear clumps (figure 2B) and several type 1 fibersmaking a small group (figure 2 I and J) whereas ourspecimen lacked the findings of large group atrophy
Figure 5 Multiple immunohistochemistry for various RNA-binding proteins and VCPp97
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the specimens of patient III-2 in family 1 (AndashD) Note theperinuclear and subsarcolemmal aggregation of fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma (FUSTLS) with sparse staining incytoplasm (arrows) whereas FUSTLS mislocalization was scarcely observed (EndashH) In atrophic fibers (asterisks) diffuse cyto-plasmic expression and extranuclearsubsarcolemmal aggregation of TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor 2N (TAF15)were frequently found The aggregation is partially colabeled with ubiquitin (arrowheads) (IndashL) In addition to heterogeneousnuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A1 and A2B1 Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 (EWSR1) and sequestome-1p62(SQSTM1p62) double-positive aggregation was observed in rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (MndashP) Note the multisystem protein-opathy 1ndashlinked valosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 SQSTM1p62 and hnRNPA1 triple-labeled aggregates in the rimmedvacuoles (arrows) (QndashT) In atrophic fibers amyotrophic lateral sclerosisdistal myopathyndashlinked matrin-3 was aberrantlyinvolved in the subsarcolemmal SQSTM1p62-positive aggregates (arrowheads) Scale bars 5 50 mm
Neurology Genetics 9
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
or apparent fiber type grouping These pathologicfindings share a close resemblance to those of IBMwith the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 We haveclearly identified autophagic vacuoles containingmyeloid bodies which often neighbored irregularlyshaped or indented myonuclei Similar pathologicfindings were also reported in patients with a muta-tion in MATR345 In addition enlarged myonuclearpores and amorphous materials along the nuclearmembrane were reported in a patient with MSP3with the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 Thereforethe question of whether this perinuclear pathologyreflects possible dysfunction of RBPs and myonucleiis of interest
Cytoplasmic retention and subsarcolemmalperinu-clear aggregation of the hnRNPA1 protein in degener-ating myofibers were prominent features revealed byimmunohistochemistry (figure 4) The distribution ofhnRNPA1-postitive aggregates corresponds closely toclusters of autophagic vacuoles ultrastructurally More-over the aggregated hnRNPA1 frequently coexistedwith Ub and an autophagic substrate (Ser403-phosphorylated) SQSTM1p62 These congruentevents suggest an aberrantly increased burden triggeredby the hnRNPA1mutation on the intrinsic protein deg-radation system including selective autophagy25
TDP-43 pathology comprising cytoplasmic aggrega-tion and nuclear exclusion was also abundant in ourstudy (figure 4) consistent with previous observationsin patients carrying the pD314V hnRNPA1mutation2
Despite the resemblance mislocalization or clearance ofmyonuclear hnRNPA1A2B1 was barely found in ourspecimens (figure e-1) suggesting sarcoplasmic pathol-ogy rather than defective physiologic function inmyonuclei as a possible primary event by mutanthnRNPA1 Nonetheless the cytoplasmic aggregationand nuclear depletion of hnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1and TDP-43 are to a varying degree pathologic hall-marks in common with muscle degeneration inMSP1ndash3 and in sporadic inclusion body myositis2627
Unexpectedly as unreported observations otherPrLD-harboring proteins such as FET family proteinsalso constituted cytoplasmic aggregates in the degener-ating muscle fibers to a lesser extent on FUSTLS (fig-ure 5) Furthermore even proteins without a PrLDsuch as ALSdistal myopathy-linked45 matrin-3 andMSP1-linked VCPp97 formed cytoplasmic coaggre-gation with hnRNPA1 in this study (figure 5) suggest-ing broad involvement of RBPs and their regulatorsRecent reports uncovered a direct interaction amonghnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 and TDP-4328 They havealso suggested the essential role of VCPp97 in theautophagic clearance of excess assembly of nontranslat-ing messenger ribonucleoprotein complexes to preventpathogenic ribonucleoprotein aggregates2930 Togetherwith the results of previous reports whichever is
mutated ribonucleoprotein granulesrsquo hyperassemblyand their defective clearance may be a major pathome-chanism leading to widespread sequestration of theMSPALS-linked proteins and eventual muscle fiberdegeneration
The sarcolemmal dysferlin expression was variedin the presented cases ranging from decreased to nor-mal immunoreactivity Although comorbid loss ofdysferlin in biopsied muscles is occasionally observedin dystrophinopathy sarcoglycanopathy caveolinop-athy calpainopathy and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis31 loss of physiologic function of dysferlinhas not been reported in MSPs to date Thus thepossible association between dysferlin and hnRNPA1remains to be elucidated
We have reported dominantly inherited isolatedIBM as a novel phenotype of MSP3 Muscle weaknessas an isolated symptom is estimated to account forapproximately 30 of all symptoms in MSP12432 Inaddition to the rare involvement of bone reported inAsian patients withMSP133 PDB itself is infrequent inthe Japanese population34 Therefore such ethnic dif-ferences in genetic background may be associated withthe Japanese MSP3 phenotype The selective involve-ment of skeletal muscles reported in this study shouldbe confirmed particularly by pathologic analyses as acumulative case study Nevertheless the present resultssuggest that mutations in hnRNPA1 and possiblyhnRNPA2B1 will be identified in patients with a puremuscular phenotype specifically presenting etiology-unknown IBM as was the case with hnRNP-associatedgenes reported in Welander distal myopathy and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 1G35ndash37 The precise evalua-tion of these cases will help to elucidate the diseasefrequency penetrance genotypendashphenotype correla-tion and natural history of patients with MSPs Theunresolved issue will be challenged by the developmentof cellular and animal models strictly reflecting MSPs
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSRumiko Izumi principal author designed the study analyzed and inter-
preted the data drafted the manuscript Hitoshi Warita coauthor de-
signed the study performed the immunohistochemical study of
biopsied muscle specimens and revised the manuscript Tetsuya Niihori
and Yoko Aoki coauthors designed the study analyzed and interpreted
the data and revised the manuscript Toshiaki Takahashi Satomi Mitsu-
hashi and Ichizo Nishino coauthors acquired and provided data Maki
Tateyama coauthor performed the light and electron microscopic study
of the biopsied muscles and revised the manuscript Naoki Suzuki and
Masashi Aoki coauthors revised the manuscript Ayumi Nishiyama
coauthor performed the Sanger sequencing Matsuyuki Shirota Ryo
Funayama and Keiko Nakayama coauthors analyzed and interpreted
the data
ACKNOWLEDGMENTThe authors appreciate the cooperation of the patients and their families
and are grateful to Drs Kazuo Kobayashi Hideki Mizuno Takafumi Ha-
segawa Ohito Tano and Hiroshi Kuroda for their fruitful discussions and
Yoko Tateda Kumi Kato Riyo Takahashi Naoko Shimakura Risa Ando
Maya Narisawa Miyuki Tsuda Makiko Nakagawa Mami Kikuchi and
10 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Kiyotaka Kuroda for technical assistance Moreover the support of the
Biomedical Research Core of Tohoku University Graduate School of Med-
icine is also gratefully acknowledged
STUDY FUNDINGThis study was supported by an Intramural Research Grant (26-8) for
Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders of NCNP the grant on Research
on Rare and Intractable Diseases (H26-intractable disease 037 and 082)
from the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan the Ministry
of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan (H26-Nanchitou(Nan)-Ippan-
079) Grants-in-Aid for research on rare and intractable diseases the
Research Committee on Establishment of Novel Treatments for Amyo-
trophic Lateral Sclerosis Grants-in-Aid from the Research Committee
of CNS Degenerative Diseases from the Japanese Ministry of Health
Labor and Welfare Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (25293199
and 26461288) Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from the Japanese Ministry of Education Culture Sports
Science and Technology
DISCLOSUREDr Izumi reports no disclosures Dr Warita has received research sup-
port from Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (26461288 25293199
and 23591229) and Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Japan Dr Niihori and Dr Takahashi report no disclosures Dr Tateya-
ma has received honoraria for lecturing from Daiichi Sankyo company
and has received research support from the Japan Society of the Promo-
tion of Science (KAKENHI 25461265) Dr Suzuki and Dr Nishiyama
report no disclosures Dr Shirota has received research support from
MEXT JSPS KAKENHI (26730148) and JST (14533504) Dr
Funayama has a patent pending on the quantitative ChIP-seq technology
and has received research support from the grant on Research on Rare
and Intractable Diseases from the Ministry of Health Labour and Wel-
fare (Japan) an Intramural Research Grant for Neurological and Psychi-
atric Disorders of NCNP and Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Dr Nakayama
and Dr Mitsuhashi report no disclosures Dr Nishino serves on the sci-
entific advisory board for Nobelpharma Ultragenyx and Genzyme
serves as an editorial board member of Neuromuscular Disorders Neurol-
ogy and Clinical Neuroscience eNeurologicalSci Skeletal Muscle Journal of
Neuromuscular Diseases Journal of the Neurological Sciences Rinsho Shin-
keigaku Chinese Journal of Contemporary Neurology and Neurosurgery and
Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders has a patent pending on
the therapeutic pharmaceutical agent for diseases associated with decrease
in function of GNE protein food composition and food additive has
received honoraria from Genzyme Japan and has received research sup-
port from Genzyme Japan Novartis Japan Astellas JSPS (KAKENHI
httpngneurologyorgcgicollectionall_geneticsAll Geneticsfollowing collection(s) This article along with others on similar topics appears in the
Permissions amp Licensing
httpngneurologyorgmiscaboutxhtmlpermissionsits entirety can be found online atInformation about reproducing this article in parts (figurestables) or in
Reprints
httpngneurologyorgmiscaddirxhtmlreprintsusInformation about ordering reprints can be found online
Neurology All rights reserved Online ISSN 2376-7839an open-access online-only continuous publication journal Copyright copy 2015 American Academy of
is an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology Published since April 2015 it isNeurol Genet
chronic myopathic changes including increasedendomysial fibrosis highly increased variability inthe size of myofibers and increased central nucleiwere found (figure 2A) There was a small numberof regenerated fibers In contrast inflammatorycell infiltration and apparent neurogenic changewere absent Immunohistochemistry revealed thata-sarcoglycan a-dystroglycan caveolin-3 emerinand dystrophin were normally expressed (data notshown) Dysferlin expression was decreased inpatient III-115 and normal in patient III-2 (data notshown) Electron microscopic examination of thepatient III-2 specimen revealed the presence ofmembrane-bound vacuoles containing myeloid bodies(figure 3 A and B) The vacuoles were located amongmyofibrils and were often adjacent to irregularly shapedor indented myonuclei (figure 3 CndashF) We could notfind nuclear or cytoplasmic tubulofilamentousinclusions in this study
Muscle pathology of patients IV-1 and IV-4 infamily 2 was essentially identical to that observed inpatients in family 1 Rimmed vacuoles were detectedin atrophic fibers along with a chronic myopathicchange (figure 2D) Nicotinamide adenine dinucleo-tidendashtetrazolium reductase staining disclosed disorga-nization of the intermyofibrillar network (figure 2F)Inflammation and apparent neurogenic changes werenot detected
Genetic investigationWe identified heterozygous non-synonymous variants which were common amongpatients and absent in unaffected individuals usingwhole-exome sequencing After filtering against the1000 Genomes (httpwww1000genomesorg)and Human Genetic Variation Databases (httpwwwgenomemedkyoto-uacjpSnpDB) 3 novel(ie absent according to the 2 aforementioneddatabases) variants were identified c76GApD26N in HIST1H2BJ encoding histone H2Btype J c202CT pR68W in HIST1H4I encodinghistone H4I and c940GA pD314N in hnRNPA1Because the pD314N and pD314V mutations inhnRNPA1 are known to cause familial ALS andMSP3 respectively2 we then performed segregationanalysis on this candidate through Sanger sequencingin 6 family members analyzed by exome sequencingThis candidate (c940GA in hnRNPA1 [NM_031157]) was detected in all patients (n 5 4) andwas not detected in any of the unaffected familymembers (n 5 2) or in 190 ethnically matchedcontrol individuals (380 chromosomes) (figure 1C)These results suggested that the rare mutationidentified in hnRNPA1 segregated with the disease infamily 1
All previously reported mutations in hnRNPA1and hnRNPA2B1 were consistently located on the
Figure 2 Muscle histopathology
Hematoxylin amp eosin (A B) modified Gomori trichrome (C D) Nicotinamide adenine dinucle-otidendashtetrazolium reductase (E F) cytochrome c oxidase (COX) (G H) serial and ATPasepH45 (I J) staining of the biopsied muscle samples from the biceps brachii of patient III-2 infamily 1 (left panels A C E G I) and the triceps brachii of patient IV-1 in family 2 (rightpanels B D F H J) are shown Hypertrophic fibers larger than 100 mm and angulated orrounded atrophic fibers are shown (A B) Highly increased central nuclei and a fraction offibers with pyknotic nuclear clumps are present (B) Rimmed vacuoles are located in atrophicfibers which tend to make small groups (C D) Disorganization of the myofibrillar network isobserved (F) COX staining does not display complete COX-deficient myofibers (G H) OnATPase pH45 the type distribution is almost equal and atrophic fibers are observed in bothtype 1 and type 2 fibers (I J) Type grouping is essentially negative except for the subtlefinding of several type 1 fibers making a small group (I J) Scale bars 5 100 mm
Neurology Genetics 5
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
core PrLD of the hnRNPs2 We then analyzed thesequence-encoding core PrLDs of hnRNPA1 (nucleo-tides 697ndash972 in NM_031157 which encode co-dons 233ndash324 in NP_112420) and hnRNPA2B1(nucleotides 796ndash909 in NM_002137 whichencode codons 266ndash303 in NP_002128) in patientIII-1 in family 1 and patients IV-1 and IV-2 in family2 Sanger sequencing confirmed that pD314N
in hnRNPA1 is the only mutation across theabove-mentioned sequence in patient III-1 in family1 and revealed that patients IV-1 and IV-2 in family 2also harbor the same mutation
Multiple immunohistochemistry To define hnRNPA1protein localization with its related proteins we per-formed multiple immunofluorescence in biopsied
Figure 3 Ultrastructural analysis of muscle
Ultrastructural findings of patient III-2 in family 1 are shown The enclosed section of E is enlarged in F The autophagicvacuoles containing myeloid bodies and glycogen granules are located among myofibrils (A B) and neighboring myonuclei(CndashF) Myonuclei (indicated by N) located in subsarcolemma (C) or sarcoplasm (D) are irregularly shaped and have indentation(an arrow) Scale bars are embedded in each panel
6 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
muscle specimens from patient III-2 in family 1samples from other patients in the 2 families wereunavailable The major finding was sarcoplasmicsubsarcolemmal and perinuclear aggregation ofhnRNPA1 in atrophic fibers and in fibers withrimmed vacuoles (figure 4 AndashH) Atrophic fibersfrequently retained transactive response DNA-bindingprotein 43 kDa (TDP-43)ubiquitin (Ub) double-positive cytoplasmic aggregates with the nucleardepletion of TDP-43 (figure 4 IndashL) In associationwith multiple rimmed vacuoles the mislocalizedTDP-43 was occasionally phosphorylated at Ser409Ser410 residues it also colocalized with sequestome-1(SQSTM1p62) and hnRNPA1 (figure 4 MndashP) Therimmed vacuoles were Ub- and SQSTM1p62-positive some were stained with anti-SQSTM1p62phosphorylated at the Ser403 residue (figure 4QndashT) The MSP2-linked gene product hnRNPA2B1was also detected in Ub-positive aggregates in atrophicor rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fibers (figure 4 UndashX)hnRNPA1 and A2B1 were generally colocalized(figure e-1 IndashL) a discrete aggregation of the 2hnRNPs occurred infrequently (figure e-1 MndashP)Mislocalization and deprivation of hnRNPA1 orhnRNPA2B1 from the myonuclei were rarely foundin extremely atrophied fibers (figure e-1 MndashP)Neonatal myosin heavy chainndashpositive regenerativefibers also exhibited the hnRNPA1 aggregationpathology (data not shown)
On the basis of the aforementioned findings withhnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 TDP-43 SQSTM1p62and Ub pathology we further examined the possiblecoaggregationmislocalization ofMSPALS-linked pro-teins Fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma(FUSTLS) TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor2N and Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 knownas FET family proteins harboring the PrLD were co-localized with Ub- or SQSTM1p62-positive sarco-plasmic aggregates in atrophic fibers (figure 5 AndashH)and in rimmed vacuoles (figure 5 IndashL) HoweverFUSTLS aggregation was substantially minimalnuclear clearance of the FET proteins was lackingValosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 was also colo-calized with SQSTM1p62-positive hnRNPA1 aggre-gates closely related to rimmed vacuoles (figure 5MndashP) Furthermore matrin-3 formed subsarcolemmalSQSTM1p62-labeled clumps (figure 5 QndashT) How-ever loss of matrin-3 immunoreactivity in the myonu-clei was essentially absent All aberrant aggregationsobserved in patient III-2 in family 1 were negative incontrol specimens (data not shown)
DISCUSSION We found that the missense mutationc940GA pD314N in hnRNPA1 segregated withIBM an additional pure muscular phenotype ofMSP3 in 2 unrelated Japanese families The identified
mutation in hnRNPA1 was considered to be patho-genic for the following reasons (1) exome sequencingrevealed that this was one of the best candidate muta-tions after filtering single nucleotide polymorphismsand indels (2) no pathogenic variants were detectedamong known causative genes of dominantly inheritedmyopathy with rimmed vacuoles such as VCP1
MYH216 MYOT17 DES18 CRYAB19 TTN20
PABP221 and MATR34 in exome sequencing (3) itwas common between 2 independent families withdominantly inherited IBM (4) it was not detected in190 ethnically matched control individuals and (5)this mutation and the substitute on the identical resi-due are known to be causative of familial ALS andMSP3 respectively2
All patients included in this study had nearly identicalclinical features such as autosomal dominant inheritancewith probable high penetrance late adult-onset slowlyprogressive myopathy with predominant limb-girdleweakness absence of cognitivemotor neuronbone tis-sue involvement mild-to-moderate elevation of serumCK and histologic findings compatible with IBM (table1 figure 2) The pD314N mutation in hnRNPA1 wasreported to cause familial ALS in a previous report2 Incontrast to that report motor neuron disease was fun-damentally negative in our patients The different sub-stitute on the identical residue pD314V in hnRNPA1was linked to late-onset autosomal dominant limb-girdlemuscular dystrophy accompanied by PDB222 The mus-cular phenotype caused by the hnRNPA1 pD314Vmutation is similar to that of our patients with regardto age at onset progression course and affected muscledistribution However the bone involvement in patientswith pD314V mutations accentuates the phenotypicdifference between the previously reported cases andthe cases presented in this study In this context theisolated muscle involvement is extremely distinct fromthat of the previously reported cases and is believed to bea novel pure phenotype of MSP3
The affectedmuscle distribution revealed bymuscleimaging is similar to that of previously reported pa-tients with MSP322 and MSP43 particularly in thesignificant involvement of biceps femoris and soleuswith relatively spared rectus femoris and tibialis poste-rior muscles However the distribution pattern ishighly diverse even in VCP-linked MSP12324 and alsoin various rimmed vacuolar myopathies including IBMwith GNE mutations and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis Nonetheless the aforementioned resem-blance at least among the cases with MSP3 suggestsa possible association between myotoxicity by themutant hnRNPA1 and vulnerability in each part ofmuscles A possible common feature of the vulnerablemuscles such as expression level of mutatedassociatedproteins muscle fiberndashtype composition and energymetabolism remains to be clarified
Neurology Genetics 7
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Figure 4 Multiple immunofluorescence for hnRNPA1 and related proteins
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the biopsied skeletal muscle of patient III-2 in family 1(AndashH) Aberrant subsarcolemmalperinuclear aggregation (arrowheads) and increased sarcoplasmic retention of heteroge-neous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNPA1) were mainly evident in atrophic fibers Inset in H is a higher magnification of theboxed area (scale bar 5 10 mm) The subsarcolemmalperinuclear hnRNPA1 aggregates were often colocalized with ubiq-uitin (Ub AndashD arrowheads) and SQSTM1p62 (EndashH arrows) Note the close association of hnRNPA1Ub double-positiveaggregation with the rimmed vacuole (AndashD arrows) (IndashL) In the atrophic fibers transactive response DNA binding protein43 kDa (TDP-43)Ub double-positive aggregation (arrowheads) was also observed with the cytoplasmic mislocalization andnuclear depletion of TDP-43 (arrows) (MndashP) The aberrant aggregation of hnRNPA1 was occasionally triple-labeled withphosphorylated TDP-43 and sequestome-1p62 (SQSTM1p62) closely adjacent to rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (QndashX) Therimmed vacuoles were often related to Ub phosphorylated SQSTM1p62 (QndashT arrows) and hnRNPA2B1 (UndashX asterisksindicate a rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fiber) TO-PRO-3 nuclear staining (C G K W) Scale bars 5 50 mm
8 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Muscle histopathology of the 2 families was com-patible with IBM Common features were increasedrimmed vacuoles absence of inflammation andapparent neurogenic change and slight muscle fibernecrosis and regeneration The involvement of
neurogenic atrophy was not completely excludedbecause of angulated fibers (figure 2A) pyknoticnuclear clumps (figure 2B) and several type 1 fibersmaking a small group (figure 2 I and J) whereas ourspecimen lacked the findings of large group atrophy
Figure 5 Multiple immunohistochemistry for various RNA-binding proteins and VCPp97
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the specimens of patient III-2 in family 1 (AndashD) Note theperinuclear and subsarcolemmal aggregation of fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma (FUSTLS) with sparse staining incytoplasm (arrows) whereas FUSTLS mislocalization was scarcely observed (EndashH) In atrophic fibers (asterisks) diffuse cyto-plasmic expression and extranuclearsubsarcolemmal aggregation of TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor 2N (TAF15)were frequently found The aggregation is partially colabeled with ubiquitin (arrowheads) (IndashL) In addition to heterogeneousnuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A1 and A2B1 Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 (EWSR1) and sequestome-1p62(SQSTM1p62) double-positive aggregation was observed in rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (MndashP) Note the multisystem protein-opathy 1ndashlinked valosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 SQSTM1p62 and hnRNPA1 triple-labeled aggregates in the rimmedvacuoles (arrows) (QndashT) In atrophic fibers amyotrophic lateral sclerosisdistal myopathyndashlinked matrin-3 was aberrantlyinvolved in the subsarcolemmal SQSTM1p62-positive aggregates (arrowheads) Scale bars 5 50 mm
Neurology Genetics 9
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
or apparent fiber type grouping These pathologicfindings share a close resemblance to those of IBMwith the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 We haveclearly identified autophagic vacuoles containingmyeloid bodies which often neighbored irregularlyshaped or indented myonuclei Similar pathologicfindings were also reported in patients with a muta-tion in MATR345 In addition enlarged myonuclearpores and amorphous materials along the nuclearmembrane were reported in a patient with MSP3with the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 Thereforethe question of whether this perinuclear pathologyreflects possible dysfunction of RBPs and myonucleiis of interest
Cytoplasmic retention and subsarcolemmalperinu-clear aggregation of the hnRNPA1 protein in degener-ating myofibers were prominent features revealed byimmunohistochemistry (figure 4) The distribution ofhnRNPA1-postitive aggregates corresponds closely toclusters of autophagic vacuoles ultrastructurally More-over the aggregated hnRNPA1 frequently coexistedwith Ub and an autophagic substrate (Ser403-phosphorylated) SQSTM1p62 These congruentevents suggest an aberrantly increased burden triggeredby the hnRNPA1mutation on the intrinsic protein deg-radation system including selective autophagy25
TDP-43 pathology comprising cytoplasmic aggrega-tion and nuclear exclusion was also abundant in ourstudy (figure 4) consistent with previous observationsin patients carrying the pD314V hnRNPA1mutation2
Despite the resemblance mislocalization or clearance ofmyonuclear hnRNPA1A2B1 was barely found in ourspecimens (figure e-1) suggesting sarcoplasmic pathol-ogy rather than defective physiologic function inmyonuclei as a possible primary event by mutanthnRNPA1 Nonetheless the cytoplasmic aggregationand nuclear depletion of hnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1and TDP-43 are to a varying degree pathologic hall-marks in common with muscle degeneration inMSP1ndash3 and in sporadic inclusion body myositis2627
Unexpectedly as unreported observations otherPrLD-harboring proteins such as FET family proteinsalso constituted cytoplasmic aggregates in the degener-ating muscle fibers to a lesser extent on FUSTLS (fig-ure 5) Furthermore even proteins without a PrLDsuch as ALSdistal myopathy-linked45 matrin-3 andMSP1-linked VCPp97 formed cytoplasmic coaggre-gation with hnRNPA1 in this study (figure 5) suggest-ing broad involvement of RBPs and their regulatorsRecent reports uncovered a direct interaction amonghnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 and TDP-4328 They havealso suggested the essential role of VCPp97 in theautophagic clearance of excess assembly of nontranslat-ing messenger ribonucleoprotein complexes to preventpathogenic ribonucleoprotein aggregates2930 Togetherwith the results of previous reports whichever is
mutated ribonucleoprotein granulesrsquo hyperassemblyand their defective clearance may be a major pathome-chanism leading to widespread sequestration of theMSPALS-linked proteins and eventual muscle fiberdegeneration
The sarcolemmal dysferlin expression was variedin the presented cases ranging from decreased to nor-mal immunoreactivity Although comorbid loss ofdysferlin in biopsied muscles is occasionally observedin dystrophinopathy sarcoglycanopathy caveolinop-athy calpainopathy and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis31 loss of physiologic function of dysferlinhas not been reported in MSPs to date Thus thepossible association between dysferlin and hnRNPA1remains to be elucidated
We have reported dominantly inherited isolatedIBM as a novel phenotype of MSP3 Muscle weaknessas an isolated symptom is estimated to account forapproximately 30 of all symptoms in MSP12432 Inaddition to the rare involvement of bone reported inAsian patients withMSP133 PDB itself is infrequent inthe Japanese population34 Therefore such ethnic dif-ferences in genetic background may be associated withthe Japanese MSP3 phenotype The selective involve-ment of skeletal muscles reported in this study shouldbe confirmed particularly by pathologic analyses as acumulative case study Nevertheless the present resultssuggest that mutations in hnRNPA1 and possiblyhnRNPA2B1 will be identified in patients with a puremuscular phenotype specifically presenting etiology-unknown IBM as was the case with hnRNP-associatedgenes reported in Welander distal myopathy and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 1G35ndash37 The precise evalua-tion of these cases will help to elucidate the diseasefrequency penetrance genotypendashphenotype correla-tion and natural history of patients with MSPs Theunresolved issue will be challenged by the developmentof cellular and animal models strictly reflecting MSPs
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSRumiko Izumi principal author designed the study analyzed and inter-
preted the data drafted the manuscript Hitoshi Warita coauthor de-
signed the study performed the immunohistochemical study of
biopsied muscle specimens and revised the manuscript Tetsuya Niihori
and Yoko Aoki coauthors designed the study analyzed and interpreted
the data and revised the manuscript Toshiaki Takahashi Satomi Mitsu-
hashi and Ichizo Nishino coauthors acquired and provided data Maki
Tateyama coauthor performed the light and electron microscopic study
of the biopsied muscles and revised the manuscript Naoki Suzuki and
Masashi Aoki coauthors revised the manuscript Ayumi Nishiyama
coauthor performed the Sanger sequencing Matsuyuki Shirota Ryo
Funayama and Keiko Nakayama coauthors analyzed and interpreted
the data
ACKNOWLEDGMENTThe authors appreciate the cooperation of the patients and their families
and are grateful to Drs Kazuo Kobayashi Hideki Mizuno Takafumi Ha-
segawa Ohito Tano and Hiroshi Kuroda for their fruitful discussions and
Yoko Tateda Kumi Kato Riyo Takahashi Naoko Shimakura Risa Ando
Maya Narisawa Miyuki Tsuda Makiko Nakagawa Mami Kikuchi and
10 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Kiyotaka Kuroda for technical assistance Moreover the support of the
Biomedical Research Core of Tohoku University Graduate School of Med-
icine is also gratefully acknowledged
STUDY FUNDINGThis study was supported by an Intramural Research Grant (26-8) for
Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders of NCNP the grant on Research
on Rare and Intractable Diseases (H26-intractable disease 037 and 082)
from the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan the Ministry
of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan (H26-Nanchitou(Nan)-Ippan-
079) Grants-in-Aid for research on rare and intractable diseases the
Research Committee on Establishment of Novel Treatments for Amyo-
trophic Lateral Sclerosis Grants-in-Aid from the Research Committee
of CNS Degenerative Diseases from the Japanese Ministry of Health
Labor and Welfare Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (25293199
and 26461288) Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from the Japanese Ministry of Education Culture Sports
Science and Technology
DISCLOSUREDr Izumi reports no disclosures Dr Warita has received research sup-
port from Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (26461288 25293199
and 23591229) and Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Japan Dr Niihori and Dr Takahashi report no disclosures Dr Tateya-
ma has received honoraria for lecturing from Daiichi Sankyo company
and has received research support from the Japan Society of the Promo-
tion of Science (KAKENHI 25461265) Dr Suzuki and Dr Nishiyama
report no disclosures Dr Shirota has received research support from
MEXT JSPS KAKENHI (26730148) and JST (14533504) Dr
Funayama has a patent pending on the quantitative ChIP-seq technology
and has received research support from the grant on Research on Rare
and Intractable Diseases from the Ministry of Health Labour and Wel-
fare (Japan) an Intramural Research Grant for Neurological and Psychi-
atric Disorders of NCNP and Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Dr Nakayama
and Dr Mitsuhashi report no disclosures Dr Nishino serves on the sci-
entific advisory board for Nobelpharma Ultragenyx and Genzyme
serves as an editorial board member of Neuromuscular Disorders Neurol-
ogy and Clinical Neuroscience eNeurologicalSci Skeletal Muscle Journal of
Neuromuscular Diseases Journal of the Neurological Sciences Rinsho Shin-
keigaku Chinese Journal of Contemporary Neurology and Neurosurgery and
Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders has a patent pending on
the therapeutic pharmaceutical agent for diseases associated with decrease
in function of GNE protein food composition and food additive has
received honoraria from Genzyme Japan and has received research sup-
port from Genzyme Japan Novartis Japan Astellas JSPS (KAKENHI
httpngneurologyorgcgicollectionall_geneticsAll Geneticsfollowing collection(s) This article along with others on similar topics appears in the
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is an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology Published since April 2015 it isNeurol Genet
core PrLD of the hnRNPs2 We then analyzed thesequence-encoding core PrLDs of hnRNPA1 (nucleo-tides 697ndash972 in NM_031157 which encode co-dons 233ndash324 in NP_112420) and hnRNPA2B1(nucleotides 796ndash909 in NM_002137 whichencode codons 266ndash303 in NP_002128) in patientIII-1 in family 1 and patients IV-1 and IV-2 in family2 Sanger sequencing confirmed that pD314N
in hnRNPA1 is the only mutation across theabove-mentioned sequence in patient III-1 in family1 and revealed that patients IV-1 and IV-2 in family 2also harbor the same mutation
Multiple immunohistochemistry To define hnRNPA1protein localization with its related proteins we per-formed multiple immunofluorescence in biopsied
Figure 3 Ultrastructural analysis of muscle
Ultrastructural findings of patient III-2 in family 1 are shown The enclosed section of E is enlarged in F The autophagicvacuoles containing myeloid bodies and glycogen granules are located among myofibrils (A B) and neighboring myonuclei(CndashF) Myonuclei (indicated by N) located in subsarcolemma (C) or sarcoplasm (D) are irregularly shaped and have indentation(an arrow) Scale bars are embedded in each panel
6 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
muscle specimens from patient III-2 in family 1samples from other patients in the 2 families wereunavailable The major finding was sarcoplasmicsubsarcolemmal and perinuclear aggregation ofhnRNPA1 in atrophic fibers and in fibers withrimmed vacuoles (figure 4 AndashH) Atrophic fibersfrequently retained transactive response DNA-bindingprotein 43 kDa (TDP-43)ubiquitin (Ub) double-positive cytoplasmic aggregates with the nucleardepletion of TDP-43 (figure 4 IndashL) In associationwith multiple rimmed vacuoles the mislocalizedTDP-43 was occasionally phosphorylated at Ser409Ser410 residues it also colocalized with sequestome-1(SQSTM1p62) and hnRNPA1 (figure 4 MndashP) Therimmed vacuoles were Ub- and SQSTM1p62-positive some were stained with anti-SQSTM1p62phosphorylated at the Ser403 residue (figure 4QndashT) The MSP2-linked gene product hnRNPA2B1was also detected in Ub-positive aggregates in atrophicor rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fibers (figure 4 UndashX)hnRNPA1 and A2B1 were generally colocalized(figure e-1 IndashL) a discrete aggregation of the 2hnRNPs occurred infrequently (figure e-1 MndashP)Mislocalization and deprivation of hnRNPA1 orhnRNPA2B1 from the myonuclei were rarely foundin extremely atrophied fibers (figure e-1 MndashP)Neonatal myosin heavy chainndashpositive regenerativefibers also exhibited the hnRNPA1 aggregationpathology (data not shown)
On the basis of the aforementioned findings withhnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 TDP-43 SQSTM1p62and Ub pathology we further examined the possiblecoaggregationmislocalization ofMSPALS-linked pro-teins Fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma(FUSTLS) TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor2N and Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 knownas FET family proteins harboring the PrLD were co-localized with Ub- or SQSTM1p62-positive sarco-plasmic aggregates in atrophic fibers (figure 5 AndashH)and in rimmed vacuoles (figure 5 IndashL) HoweverFUSTLS aggregation was substantially minimalnuclear clearance of the FET proteins was lackingValosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 was also colo-calized with SQSTM1p62-positive hnRNPA1 aggre-gates closely related to rimmed vacuoles (figure 5MndashP) Furthermore matrin-3 formed subsarcolemmalSQSTM1p62-labeled clumps (figure 5 QndashT) How-ever loss of matrin-3 immunoreactivity in the myonu-clei was essentially absent All aberrant aggregationsobserved in patient III-2 in family 1 were negative incontrol specimens (data not shown)
DISCUSSION We found that the missense mutationc940GA pD314N in hnRNPA1 segregated withIBM an additional pure muscular phenotype ofMSP3 in 2 unrelated Japanese families The identified
mutation in hnRNPA1 was considered to be patho-genic for the following reasons (1) exome sequencingrevealed that this was one of the best candidate muta-tions after filtering single nucleotide polymorphismsand indels (2) no pathogenic variants were detectedamong known causative genes of dominantly inheritedmyopathy with rimmed vacuoles such as VCP1
MYH216 MYOT17 DES18 CRYAB19 TTN20
PABP221 and MATR34 in exome sequencing (3) itwas common between 2 independent families withdominantly inherited IBM (4) it was not detected in190 ethnically matched control individuals and (5)this mutation and the substitute on the identical resi-due are known to be causative of familial ALS andMSP3 respectively2
All patients included in this study had nearly identicalclinical features such as autosomal dominant inheritancewith probable high penetrance late adult-onset slowlyprogressive myopathy with predominant limb-girdleweakness absence of cognitivemotor neuronbone tis-sue involvement mild-to-moderate elevation of serumCK and histologic findings compatible with IBM (table1 figure 2) The pD314N mutation in hnRNPA1 wasreported to cause familial ALS in a previous report2 Incontrast to that report motor neuron disease was fun-damentally negative in our patients The different sub-stitute on the identical residue pD314V in hnRNPA1was linked to late-onset autosomal dominant limb-girdlemuscular dystrophy accompanied by PDB222 The mus-cular phenotype caused by the hnRNPA1 pD314Vmutation is similar to that of our patients with regardto age at onset progression course and affected muscledistribution However the bone involvement in patientswith pD314V mutations accentuates the phenotypicdifference between the previously reported cases andthe cases presented in this study In this context theisolated muscle involvement is extremely distinct fromthat of the previously reported cases and is believed to bea novel pure phenotype of MSP3
The affectedmuscle distribution revealed bymuscleimaging is similar to that of previously reported pa-tients with MSP322 and MSP43 particularly in thesignificant involvement of biceps femoris and soleuswith relatively spared rectus femoris and tibialis poste-rior muscles However the distribution pattern ishighly diverse even in VCP-linked MSP12324 and alsoin various rimmed vacuolar myopathies including IBMwith GNE mutations and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis Nonetheless the aforementioned resem-blance at least among the cases with MSP3 suggestsa possible association between myotoxicity by themutant hnRNPA1 and vulnerability in each part ofmuscles A possible common feature of the vulnerablemuscles such as expression level of mutatedassociatedproteins muscle fiberndashtype composition and energymetabolism remains to be clarified
Neurology Genetics 7
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Figure 4 Multiple immunofluorescence for hnRNPA1 and related proteins
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the biopsied skeletal muscle of patient III-2 in family 1(AndashH) Aberrant subsarcolemmalperinuclear aggregation (arrowheads) and increased sarcoplasmic retention of heteroge-neous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNPA1) were mainly evident in atrophic fibers Inset in H is a higher magnification of theboxed area (scale bar 5 10 mm) The subsarcolemmalperinuclear hnRNPA1 aggregates were often colocalized with ubiq-uitin (Ub AndashD arrowheads) and SQSTM1p62 (EndashH arrows) Note the close association of hnRNPA1Ub double-positiveaggregation with the rimmed vacuole (AndashD arrows) (IndashL) In the atrophic fibers transactive response DNA binding protein43 kDa (TDP-43)Ub double-positive aggregation (arrowheads) was also observed with the cytoplasmic mislocalization andnuclear depletion of TDP-43 (arrows) (MndashP) The aberrant aggregation of hnRNPA1 was occasionally triple-labeled withphosphorylated TDP-43 and sequestome-1p62 (SQSTM1p62) closely adjacent to rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (QndashX) Therimmed vacuoles were often related to Ub phosphorylated SQSTM1p62 (QndashT arrows) and hnRNPA2B1 (UndashX asterisksindicate a rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fiber) TO-PRO-3 nuclear staining (C G K W) Scale bars 5 50 mm
8 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Muscle histopathology of the 2 families was com-patible with IBM Common features were increasedrimmed vacuoles absence of inflammation andapparent neurogenic change and slight muscle fibernecrosis and regeneration The involvement of
neurogenic atrophy was not completely excludedbecause of angulated fibers (figure 2A) pyknoticnuclear clumps (figure 2B) and several type 1 fibersmaking a small group (figure 2 I and J) whereas ourspecimen lacked the findings of large group atrophy
Figure 5 Multiple immunohistochemistry for various RNA-binding proteins and VCPp97
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the specimens of patient III-2 in family 1 (AndashD) Note theperinuclear and subsarcolemmal aggregation of fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma (FUSTLS) with sparse staining incytoplasm (arrows) whereas FUSTLS mislocalization was scarcely observed (EndashH) In atrophic fibers (asterisks) diffuse cyto-plasmic expression and extranuclearsubsarcolemmal aggregation of TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor 2N (TAF15)were frequently found The aggregation is partially colabeled with ubiquitin (arrowheads) (IndashL) In addition to heterogeneousnuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A1 and A2B1 Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 (EWSR1) and sequestome-1p62(SQSTM1p62) double-positive aggregation was observed in rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (MndashP) Note the multisystem protein-opathy 1ndashlinked valosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 SQSTM1p62 and hnRNPA1 triple-labeled aggregates in the rimmedvacuoles (arrows) (QndashT) In atrophic fibers amyotrophic lateral sclerosisdistal myopathyndashlinked matrin-3 was aberrantlyinvolved in the subsarcolemmal SQSTM1p62-positive aggregates (arrowheads) Scale bars 5 50 mm
Neurology Genetics 9
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
or apparent fiber type grouping These pathologicfindings share a close resemblance to those of IBMwith the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 We haveclearly identified autophagic vacuoles containingmyeloid bodies which often neighbored irregularlyshaped or indented myonuclei Similar pathologicfindings were also reported in patients with a muta-tion in MATR345 In addition enlarged myonuclearpores and amorphous materials along the nuclearmembrane were reported in a patient with MSP3with the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 Thereforethe question of whether this perinuclear pathologyreflects possible dysfunction of RBPs and myonucleiis of interest
Cytoplasmic retention and subsarcolemmalperinu-clear aggregation of the hnRNPA1 protein in degener-ating myofibers were prominent features revealed byimmunohistochemistry (figure 4) The distribution ofhnRNPA1-postitive aggregates corresponds closely toclusters of autophagic vacuoles ultrastructurally More-over the aggregated hnRNPA1 frequently coexistedwith Ub and an autophagic substrate (Ser403-phosphorylated) SQSTM1p62 These congruentevents suggest an aberrantly increased burden triggeredby the hnRNPA1mutation on the intrinsic protein deg-radation system including selective autophagy25
TDP-43 pathology comprising cytoplasmic aggrega-tion and nuclear exclusion was also abundant in ourstudy (figure 4) consistent with previous observationsin patients carrying the pD314V hnRNPA1mutation2
Despite the resemblance mislocalization or clearance ofmyonuclear hnRNPA1A2B1 was barely found in ourspecimens (figure e-1) suggesting sarcoplasmic pathol-ogy rather than defective physiologic function inmyonuclei as a possible primary event by mutanthnRNPA1 Nonetheless the cytoplasmic aggregationand nuclear depletion of hnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1and TDP-43 are to a varying degree pathologic hall-marks in common with muscle degeneration inMSP1ndash3 and in sporadic inclusion body myositis2627
Unexpectedly as unreported observations otherPrLD-harboring proteins such as FET family proteinsalso constituted cytoplasmic aggregates in the degener-ating muscle fibers to a lesser extent on FUSTLS (fig-ure 5) Furthermore even proteins without a PrLDsuch as ALSdistal myopathy-linked45 matrin-3 andMSP1-linked VCPp97 formed cytoplasmic coaggre-gation with hnRNPA1 in this study (figure 5) suggest-ing broad involvement of RBPs and their regulatorsRecent reports uncovered a direct interaction amonghnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 and TDP-4328 They havealso suggested the essential role of VCPp97 in theautophagic clearance of excess assembly of nontranslat-ing messenger ribonucleoprotein complexes to preventpathogenic ribonucleoprotein aggregates2930 Togetherwith the results of previous reports whichever is
mutated ribonucleoprotein granulesrsquo hyperassemblyand their defective clearance may be a major pathome-chanism leading to widespread sequestration of theMSPALS-linked proteins and eventual muscle fiberdegeneration
The sarcolemmal dysferlin expression was variedin the presented cases ranging from decreased to nor-mal immunoreactivity Although comorbid loss ofdysferlin in biopsied muscles is occasionally observedin dystrophinopathy sarcoglycanopathy caveolinop-athy calpainopathy and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis31 loss of physiologic function of dysferlinhas not been reported in MSPs to date Thus thepossible association between dysferlin and hnRNPA1remains to be elucidated
We have reported dominantly inherited isolatedIBM as a novel phenotype of MSP3 Muscle weaknessas an isolated symptom is estimated to account forapproximately 30 of all symptoms in MSP12432 Inaddition to the rare involvement of bone reported inAsian patients withMSP133 PDB itself is infrequent inthe Japanese population34 Therefore such ethnic dif-ferences in genetic background may be associated withthe Japanese MSP3 phenotype The selective involve-ment of skeletal muscles reported in this study shouldbe confirmed particularly by pathologic analyses as acumulative case study Nevertheless the present resultssuggest that mutations in hnRNPA1 and possiblyhnRNPA2B1 will be identified in patients with a puremuscular phenotype specifically presenting etiology-unknown IBM as was the case with hnRNP-associatedgenes reported in Welander distal myopathy and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 1G35ndash37 The precise evalua-tion of these cases will help to elucidate the diseasefrequency penetrance genotypendashphenotype correla-tion and natural history of patients with MSPs Theunresolved issue will be challenged by the developmentof cellular and animal models strictly reflecting MSPs
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSRumiko Izumi principal author designed the study analyzed and inter-
preted the data drafted the manuscript Hitoshi Warita coauthor de-
signed the study performed the immunohistochemical study of
biopsied muscle specimens and revised the manuscript Tetsuya Niihori
and Yoko Aoki coauthors designed the study analyzed and interpreted
the data and revised the manuscript Toshiaki Takahashi Satomi Mitsu-
hashi and Ichizo Nishino coauthors acquired and provided data Maki
Tateyama coauthor performed the light and electron microscopic study
of the biopsied muscles and revised the manuscript Naoki Suzuki and
Masashi Aoki coauthors revised the manuscript Ayumi Nishiyama
coauthor performed the Sanger sequencing Matsuyuki Shirota Ryo
Funayama and Keiko Nakayama coauthors analyzed and interpreted
the data
ACKNOWLEDGMENTThe authors appreciate the cooperation of the patients and their families
and are grateful to Drs Kazuo Kobayashi Hideki Mizuno Takafumi Ha-
segawa Ohito Tano and Hiroshi Kuroda for their fruitful discussions and
Yoko Tateda Kumi Kato Riyo Takahashi Naoko Shimakura Risa Ando
Maya Narisawa Miyuki Tsuda Makiko Nakagawa Mami Kikuchi and
10 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Kiyotaka Kuroda for technical assistance Moreover the support of the
Biomedical Research Core of Tohoku University Graduate School of Med-
icine is also gratefully acknowledged
STUDY FUNDINGThis study was supported by an Intramural Research Grant (26-8) for
Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders of NCNP the grant on Research
on Rare and Intractable Diseases (H26-intractable disease 037 and 082)
from the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan the Ministry
of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan (H26-Nanchitou(Nan)-Ippan-
079) Grants-in-Aid for research on rare and intractable diseases the
Research Committee on Establishment of Novel Treatments for Amyo-
trophic Lateral Sclerosis Grants-in-Aid from the Research Committee
of CNS Degenerative Diseases from the Japanese Ministry of Health
Labor and Welfare Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (25293199
and 26461288) Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from the Japanese Ministry of Education Culture Sports
Science and Technology
DISCLOSUREDr Izumi reports no disclosures Dr Warita has received research sup-
port from Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (26461288 25293199
and 23591229) and Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Japan Dr Niihori and Dr Takahashi report no disclosures Dr Tateya-
ma has received honoraria for lecturing from Daiichi Sankyo company
and has received research support from the Japan Society of the Promo-
tion of Science (KAKENHI 25461265) Dr Suzuki and Dr Nishiyama
report no disclosures Dr Shirota has received research support from
MEXT JSPS KAKENHI (26730148) and JST (14533504) Dr
Funayama has a patent pending on the quantitative ChIP-seq technology
and has received research support from the grant on Research on Rare
and Intractable Diseases from the Ministry of Health Labour and Wel-
fare (Japan) an Intramural Research Grant for Neurological and Psychi-
atric Disorders of NCNP and Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Dr Nakayama
and Dr Mitsuhashi report no disclosures Dr Nishino serves on the sci-
entific advisory board for Nobelpharma Ultragenyx and Genzyme
serves as an editorial board member of Neuromuscular Disorders Neurol-
ogy and Clinical Neuroscience eNeurologicalSci Skeletal Muscle Journal of
Neuromuscular Diseases Journal of the Neurological Sciences Rinsho Shin-
keigaku Chinese Journal of Contemporary Neurology and Neurosurgery and
Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders has a patent pending on
the therapeutic pharmaceutical agent for diseases associated with decrease
in function of GNE protein food composition and food additive has
received honoraria from Genzyme Japan and has received research sup-
port from Genzyme Japan Novartis Japan Astellas JSPS (KAKENHI
httpngneurologyorgcgicollectionall_geneticsAll Geneticsfollowing collection(s) This article along with others on similar topics appears in the
Permissions amp Licensing
httpngneurologyorgmiscaboutxhtmlpermissionsits entirety can be found online atInformation about reproducing this article in parts (figurestables) or in
Reprints
httpngneurologyorgmiscaddirxhtmlreprintsusInformation about ordering reprints can be found online
Neurology All rights reserved Online ISSN 2376-7839an open-access online-only continuous publication journal Copyright copy 2015 American Academy of
is an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology Published since April 2015 it isNeurol Genet
muscle specimens from patient III-2 in family 1samples from other patients in the 2 families wereunavailable The major finding was sarcoplasmicsubsarcolemmal and perinuclear aggregation ofhnRNPA1 in atrophic fibers and in fibers withrimmed vacuoles (figure 4 AndashH) Atrophic fibersfrequently retained transactive response DNA-bindingprotein 43 kDa (TDP-43)ubiquitin (Ub) double-positive cytoplasmic aggregates with the nucleardepletion of TDP-43 (figure 4 IndashL) In associationwith multiple rimmed vacuoles the mislocalizedTDP-43 was occasionally phosphorylated at Ser409Ser410 residues it also colocalized with sequestome-1(SQSTM1p62) and hnRNPA1 (figure 4 MndashP) Therimmed vacuoles were Ub- and SQSTM1p62-positive some were stained with anti-SQSTM1p62phosphorylated at the Ser403 residue (figure 4QndashT) The MSP2-linked gene product hnRNPA2B1was also detected in Ub-positive aggregates in atrophicor rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fibers (figure 4 UndashX)hnRNPA1 and A2B1 were generally colocalized(figure e-1 IndashL) a discrete aggregation of the 2hnRNPs occurred infrequently (figure e-1 MndashP)Mislocalization and deprivation of hnRNPA1 orhnRNPA2B1 from the myonuclei were rarely foundin extremely atrophied fibers (figure e-1 MndashP)Neonatal myosin heavy chainndashpositive regenerativefibers also exhibited the hnRNPA1 aggregationpathology (data not shown)
On the basis of the aforementioned findings withhnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 TDP-43 SQSTM1p62and Ub pathology we further examined the possiblecoaggregationmislocalization ofMSPALS-linked pro-teins Fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma(FUSTLS) TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor2N and Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 knownas FET family proteins harboring the PrLD were co-localized with Ub- or SQSTM1p62-positive sarco-plasmic aggregates in atrophic fibers (figure 5 AndashH)and in rimmed vacuoles (figure 5 IndashL) HoweverFUSTLS aggregation was substantially minimalnuclear clearance of the FET proteins was lackingValosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 was also colo-calized with SQSTM1p62-positive hnRNPA1 aggre-gates closely related to rimmed vacuoles (figure 5MndashP) Furthermore matrin-3 formed subsarcolemmalSQSTM1p62-labeled clumps (figure 5 QndashT) How-ever loss of matrin-3 immunoreactivity in the myonu-clei was essentially absent All aberrant aggregationsobserved in patient III-2 in family 1 were negative incontrol specimens (data not shown)
DISCUSSION We found that the missense mutationc940GA pD314N in hnRNPA1 segregated withIBM an additional pure muscular phenotype ofMSP3 in 2 unrelated Japanese families The identified
mutation in hnRNPA1 was considered to be patho-genic for the following reasons (1) exome sequencingrevealed that this was one of the best candidate muta-tions after filtering single nucleotide polymorphismsand indels (2) no pathogenic variants were detectedamong known causative genes of dominantly inheritedmyopathy with rimmed vacuoles such as VCP1
MYH216 MYOT17 DES18 CRYAB19 TTN20
PABP221 and MATR34 in exome sequencing (3) itwas common between 2 independent families withdominantly inherited IBM (4) it was not detected in190 ethnically matched control individuals and (5)this mutation and the substitute on the identical resi-due are known to be causative of familial ALS andMSP3 respectively2
All patients included in this study had nearly identicalclinical features such as autosomal dominant inheritancewith probable high penetrance late adult-onset slowlyprogressive myopathy with predominant limb-girdleweakness absence of cognitivemotor neuronbone tis-sue involvement mild-to-moderate elevation of serumCK and histologic findings compatible with IBM (table1 figure 2) The pD314N mutation in hnRNPA1 wasreported to cause familial ALS in a previous report2 Incontrast to that report motor neuron disease was fun-damentally negative in our patients The different sub-stitute on the identical residue pD314V in hnRNPA1was linked to late-onset autosomal dominant limb-girdlemuscular dystrophy accompanied by PDB222 The mus-cular phenotype caused by the hnRNPA1 pD314Vmutation is similar to that of our patients with regardto age at onset progression course and affected muscledistribution However the bone involvement in patientswith pD314V mutations accentuates the phenotypicdifference between the previously reported cases andthe cases presented in this study In this context theisolated muscle involvement is extremely distinct fromthat of the previously reported cases and is believed to bea novel pure phenotype of MSP3
The affectedmuscle distribution revealed bymuscleimaging is similar to that of previously reported pa-tients with MSP322 and MSP43 particularly in thesignificant involvement of biceps femoris and soleuswith relatively spared rectus femoris and tibialis poste-rior muscles However the distribution pattern ishighly diverse even in VCP-linked MSP12324 and alsoin various rimmed vacuolar myopathies including IBMwith GNE mutations and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis Nonetheless the aforementioned resem-blance at least among the cases with MSP3 suggestsa possible association between myotoxicity by themutant hnRNPA1 and vulnerability in each part ofmuscles A possible common feature of the vulnerablemuscles such as expression level of mutatedassociatedproteins muscle fiberndashtype composition and energymetabolism remains to be clarified
Neurology Genetics 7
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Figure 4 Multiple immunofluorescence for hnRNPA1 and related proteins
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the biopsied skeletal muscle of patient III-2 in family 1(AndashH) Aberrant subsarcolemmalperinuclear aggregation (arrowheads) and increased sarcoplasmic retention of heteroge-neous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNPA1) were mainly evident in atrophic fibers Inset in H is a higher magnification of theboxed area (scale bar 5 10 mm) The subsarcolemmalperinuclear hnRNPA1 aggregates were often colocalized with ubiq-uitin (Ub AndashD arrowheads) and SQSTM1p62 (EndashH arrows) Note the close association of hnRNPA1Ub double-positiveaggregation with the rimmed vacuole (AndashD arrows) (IndashL) In the atrophic fibers transactive response DNA binding protein43 kDa (TDP-43)Ub double-positive aggregation (arrowheads) was also observed with the cytoplasmic mislocalization andnuclear depletion of TDP-43 (arrows) (MndashP) The aberrant aggregation of hnRNPA1 was occasionally triple-labeled withphosphorylated TDP-43 and sequestome-1p62 (SQSTM1p62) closely adjacent to rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (QndashX) Therimmed vacuoles were often related to Ub phosphorylated SQSTM1p62 (QndashT arrows) and hnRNPA2B1 (UndashX asterisksindicate a rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fiber) TO-PRO-3 nuclear staining (C G K W) Scale bars 5 50 mm
8 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Muscle histopathology of the 2 families was com-patible with IBM Common features were increasedrimmed vacuoles absence of inflammation andapparent neurogenic change and slight muscle fibernecrosis and regeneration The involvement of
neurogenic atrophy was not completely excludedbecause of angulated fibers (figure 2A) pyknoticnuclear clumps (figure 2B) and several type 1 fibersmaking a small group (figure 2 I and J) whereas ourspecimen lacked the findings of large group atrophy
Figure 5 Multiple immunohistochemistry for various RNA-binding proteins and VCPp97
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the specimens of patient III-2 in family 1 (AndashD) Note theperinuclear and subsarcolemmal aggregation of fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma (FUSTLS) with sparse staining incytoplasm (arrows) whereas FUSTLS mislocalization was scarcely observed (EndashH) In atrophic fibers (asterisks) diffuse cyto-plasmic expression and extranuclearsubsarcolemmal aggregation of TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor 2N (TAF15)were frequently found The aggregation is partially colabeled with ubiquitin (arrowheads) (IndashL) In addition to heterogeneousnuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A1 and A2B1 Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 (EWSR1) and sequestome-1p62(SQSTM1p62) double-positive aggregation was observed in rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (MndashP) Note the multisystem protein-opathy 1ndashlinked valosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 SQSTM1p62 and hnRNPA1 triple-labeled aggregates in the rimmedvacuoles (arrows) (QndashT) In atrophic fibers amyotrophic lateral sclerosisdistal myopathyndashlinked matrin-3 was aberrantlyinvolved in the subsarcolemmal SQSTM1p62-positive aggregates (arrowheads) Scale bars 5 50 mm
Neurology Genetics 9
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
or apparent fiber type grouping These pathologicfindings share a close resemblance to those of IBMwith the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 We haveclearly identified autophagic vacuoles containingmyeloid bodies which often neighbored irregularlyshaped or indented myonuclei Similar pathologicfindings were also reported in patients with a muta-tion in MATR345 In addition enlarged myonuclearpores and amorphous materials along the nuclearmembrane were reported in a patient with MSP3with the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 Thereforethe question of whether this perinuclear pathologyreflects possible dysfunction of RBPs and myonucleiis of interest
Cytoplasmic retention and subsarcolemmalperinu-clear aggregation of the hnRNPA1 protein in degener-ating myofibers were prominent features revealed byimmunohistochemistry (figure 4) The distribution ofhnRNPA1-postitive aggregates corresponds closely toclusters of autophagic vacuoles ultrastructurally More-over the aggregated hnRNPA1 frequently coexistedwith Ub and an autophagic substrate (Ser403-phosphorylated) SQSTM1p62 These congruentevents suggest an aberrantly increased burden triggeredby the hnRNPA1mutation on the intrinsic protein deg-radation system including selective autophagy25
TDP-43 pathology comprising cytoplasmic aggrega-tion and nuclear exclusion was also abundant in ourstudy (figure 4) consistent with previous observationsin patients carrying the pD314V hnRNPA1mutation2
Despite the resemblance mislocalization or clearance ofmyonuclear hnRNPA1A2B1 was barely found in ourspecimens (figure e-1) suggesting sarcoplasmic pathol-ogy rather than defective physiologic function inmyonuclei as a possible primary event by mutanthnRNPA1 Nonetheless the cytoplasmic aggregationand nuclear depletion of hnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1and TDP-43 are to a varying degree pathologic hall-marks in common with muscle degeneration inMSP1ndash3 and in sporadic inclusion body myositis2627
Unexpectedly as unreported observations otherPrLD-harboring proteins such as FET family proteinsalso constituted cytoplasmic aggregates in the degener-ating muscle fibers to a lesser extent on FUSTLS (fig-ure 5) Furthermore even proteins without a PrLDsuch as ALSdistal myopathy-linked45 matrin-3 andMSP1-linked VCPp97 formed cytoplasmic coaggre-gation with hnRNPA1 in this study (figure 5) suggest-ing broad involvement of RBPs and their regulatorsRecent reports uncovered a direct interaction amonghnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 and TDP-4328 They havealso suggested the essential role of VCPp97 in theautophagic clearance of excess assembly of nontranslat-ing messenger ribonucleoprotein complexes to preventpathogenic ribonucleoprotein aggregates2930 Togetherwith the results of previous reports whichever is
mutated ribonucleoprotein granulesrsquo hyperassemblyand their defective clearance may be a major pathome-chanism leading to widespread sequestration of theMSPALS-linked proteins and eventual muscle fiberdegeneration
The sarcolemmal dysferlin expression was variedin the presented cases ranging from decreased to nor-mal immunoreactivity Although comorbid loss ofdysferlin in biopsied muscles is occasionally observedin dystrophinopathy sarcoglycanopathy caveolinop-athy calpainopathy and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis31 loss of physiologic function of dysferlinhas not been reported in MSPs to date Thus thepossible association between dysferlin and hnRNPA1remains to be elucidated
We have reported dominantly inherited isolatedIBM as a novel phenotype of MSP3 Muscle weaknessas an isolated symptom is estimated to account forapproximately 30 of all symptoms in MSP12432 Inaddition to the rare involvement of bone reported inAsian patients withMSP133 PDB itself is infrequent inthe Japanese population34 Therefore such ethnic dif-ferences in genetic background may be associated withthe Japanese MSP3 phenotype The selective involve-ment of skeletal muscles reported in this study shouldbe confirmed particularly by pathologic analyses as acumulative case study Nevertheless the present resultssuggest that mutations in hnRNPA1 and possiblyhnRNPA2B1 will be identified in patients with a puremuscular phenotype specifically presenting etiology-unknown IBM as was the case with hnRNP-associatedgenes reported in Welander distal myopathy and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 1G35ndash37 The precise evalua-tion of these cases will help to elucidate the diseasefrequency penetrance genotypendashphenotype correla-tion and natural history of patients with MSPs Theunresolved issue will be challenged by the developmentof cellular and animal models strictly reflecting MSPs
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSRumiko Izumi principal author designed the study analyzed and inter-
preted the data drafted the manuscript Hitoshi Warita coauthor de-
signed the study performed the immunohistochemical study of
biopsied muscle specimens and revised the manuscript Tetsuya Niihori
and Yoko Aoki coauthors designed the study analyzed and interpreted
the data and revised the manuscript Toshiaki Takahashi Satomi Mitsu-
hashi and Ichizo Nishino coauthors acquired and provided data Maki
Tateyama coauthor performed the light and electron microscopic study
of the biopsied muscles and revised the manuscript Naoki Suzuki and
Masashi Aoki coauthors revised the manuscript Ayumi Nishiyama
coauthor performed the Sanger sequencing Matsuyuki Shirota Ryo
Funayama and Keiko Nakayama coauthors analyzed and interpreted
the data
ACKNOWLEDGMENTThe authors appreciate the cooperation of the patients and their families
and are grateful to Drs Kazuo Kobayashi Hideki Mizuno Takafumi Ha-
segawa Ohito Tano and Hiroshi Kuroda for their fruitful discussions and
Yoko Tateda Kumi Kato Riyo Takahashi Naoko Shimakura Risa Ando
Maya Narisawa Miyuki Tsuda Makiko Nakagawa Mami Kikuchi and
10 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Kiyotaka Kuroda for technical assistance Moreover the support of the
Biomedical Research Core of Tohoku University Graduate School of Med-
icine is also gratefully acknowledged
STUDY FUNDINGThis study was supported by an Intramural Research Grant (26-8) for
Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders of NCNP the grant on Research
on Rare and Intractable Diseases (H26-intractable disease 037 and 082)
from the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan the Ministry
of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan (H26-Nanchitou(Nan)-Ippan-
079) Grants-in-Aid for research on rare and intractable diseases the
Research Committee on Establishment of Novel Treatments for Amyo-
trophic Lateral Sclerosis Grants-in-Aid from the Research Committee
of CNS Degenerative Diseases from the Japanese Ministry of Health
Labor and Welfare Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (25293199
and 26461288) Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from the Japanese Ministry of Education Culture Sports
Science and Technology
DISCLOSUREDr Izumi reports no disclosures Dr Warita has received research sup-
port from Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (26461288 25293199
and 23591229) and Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Japan Dr Niihori and Dr Takahashi report no disclosures Dr Tateya-
ma has received honoraria for lecturing from Daiichi Sankyo company
and has received research support from the Japan Society of the Promo-
tion of Science (KAKENHI 25461265) Dr Suzuki and Dr Nishiyama
report no disclosures Dr Shirota has received research support from
MEXT JSPS KAKENHI (26730148) and JST (14533504) Dr
Funayama has a patent pending on the quantitative ChIP-seq technology
and has received research support from the grant on Research on Rare
and Intractable Diseases from the Ministry of Health Labour and Wel-
fare (Japan) an Intramural Research Grant for Neurological and Psychi-
atric Disorders of NCNP and Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Dr Nakayama
and Dr Mitsuhashi report no disclosures Dr Nishino serves on the sci-
entific advisory board for Nobelpharma Ultragenyx and Genzyme
serves as an editorial board member of Neuromuscular Disorders Neurol-
ogy and Clinical Neuroscience eNeurologicalSci Skeletal Muscle Journal of
Neuromuscular Diseases Journal of the Neurological Sciences Rinsho Shin-
keigaku Chinese Journal of Contemporary Neurology and Neurosurgery and
Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders has a patent pending on
the therapeutic pharmaceutical agent for diseases associated with decrease
in function of GNE protein food composition and food additive has
received honoraria from Genzyme Japan and has received research sup-
port from Genzyme Japan Novartis Japan Astellas JSPS (KAKENHI
httpngneurologyorgcgicollectionall_geneticsAll Geneticsfollowing collection(s) This article along with others on similar topics appears in the
Permissions amp Licensing
httpngneurologyorgmiscaboutxhtmlpermissionsits entirety can be found online atInformation about reproducing this article in parts (figurestables) or in
Reprints
httpngneurologyorgmiscaddirxhtmlreprintsusInformation about ordering reprints can be found online
Neurology All rights reserved Online ISSN 2376-7839an open-access online-only continuous publication journal Copyright copy 2015 American Academy of
is an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology Published since April 2015 it isNeurol Genet
Figure 4 Multiple immunofluorescence for hnRNPA1 and related proteins
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the biopsied skeletal muscle of patient III-2 in family 1(AndashH) Aberrant subsarcolemmalperinuclear aggregation (arrowheads) and increased sarcoplasmic retention of heteroge-neous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNPA1) were mainly evident in atrophic fibers Inset in H is a higher magnification of theboxed area (scale bar 5 10 mm) The subsarcolemmalperinuclear hnRNPA1 aggregates were often colocalized with ubiq-uitin (Ub AndashD arrowheads) and SQSTM1p62 (EndashH arrows) Note the close association of hnRNPA1Ub double-positiveaggregation with the rimmed vacuole (AndashD arrows) (IndashL) In the atrophic fibers transactive response DNA binding protein43 kDa (TDP-43)Ub double-positive aggregation (arrowheads) was also observed with the cytoplasmic mislocalization andnuclear depletion of TDP-43 (arrows) (MndashP) The aberrant aggregation of hnRNPA1 was occasionally triple-labeled withphosphorylated TDP-43 and sequestome-1p62 (SQSTM1p62) closely adjacent to rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (QndashX) Therimmed vacuoles were often related to Ub phosphorylated SQSTM1p62 (QndashT arrows) and hnRNPA2B1 (UndashX asterisksindicate a rimmed vacuolendashcarrying fiber) TO-PRO-3 nuclear staining (C G K W) Scale bars 5 50 mm
8 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Muscle histopathology of the 2 families was com-patible with IBM Common features were increasedrimmed vacuoles absence of inflammation andapparent neurogenic change and slight muscle fibernecrosis and regeneration The involvement of
neurogenic atrophy was not completely excludedbecause of angulated fibers (figure 2A) pyknoticnuclear clumps (figure 2B) and several type 1 fibersmaking a small group (figure 2 I and J) whereas ourspecimen lacked the findings of large group atrophy
Figure 5 Multiple immunohistochemistry for various RNA-binding proteins and VCPp97
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the specimens of patient III-2 in family 1 (AndashD) Note theperinuclear and subsarcolemmal aggregation of fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma (FUSTLS) with sparse staining incytoplasm (arrows) whereas FUSTLS mislocalization was scarcely observed (EndashH) In atrophic fibers (asterisks) diffuse cyto-plasmic expression and extranuclearsubsarcolemmal aggregation of TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor 2N (TAF15)were frequently found The aggregation is partially colabeled with ubiquitin (arrowheads) (IndashL) In addition to heterogeneousnuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A1 and A2B1 Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 (EWSR1) and sequestome-1p62(SQSTM1p62) double-positive aggregation was observed in rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (MndashP) Note the multisystem protein-opathy 1ndashlinked valosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 SQSTM1p62 and hnRNPA1 triple-labeled aggregates in the rimmedvacuoles (arrows) (QndashT) In atrophic fibers amyotrophic lateral sclerosisdistal myopathyndashlinked matrin-3 was aberrantlyinvolved in the subsarcolemmal SQSTM1p62-positive aggregates (arrowheads) Scale bars 5 50 mm
Neurology Genetics 9
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
or apparent fiber type grouping These pathologicfindings share a close resemblance to those of IBMwith the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 We haveclearly identified autophagic vacuoles containingmyeloid bodies which often neighbored irregularlyshaped or indented myonuclei Similar pathologicfindings were also reported in patients with a muta-tion in MATR345 In addition enlarged myonuclearpores and amorphous materials along the nuclearmembrane were reported in a patient with MSP3with the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 Thereforethe question of whether this perinuclear pathologyreflects possible dysfunction of RBPs and myonucleiis of interest
Cytoplasmic retention and subsarcolemmalperinu-clear aggregation of the hnRNPA1 protein in degener-ating myofibers were prominent features revealed byimmunohistochemistry (figure 4) The distribution ofhnRNPA1-postitive aggregates corresponds closely toclusters of autophagic vacuoles ultrastructurally More-over the aggregated hnRNPA1 frequently coexistedwith Ub and an autophagic substrate (Ser403-phosphorylated) SQSTM1p62 These congruentevents suggest an aberrantly increased burden triggeredby the hnRNPA1mutation on the intrinsic protein deg-radation system including selective autophagy25
TDP-43 pathology comprising cytoplasmic aggrega-tion and nuclear exclusion was also abundant in ourstudy (figure 4) consistent with previous observationsin patients carrying the pD314V hnRNPA1mutation2
Despite the resemblance mislocalization or clearance ofmyonuclear hnRNPA1A2B1 was barely found in ourspecimens (figure e-1) suggesting sarcoplasmic pathol-ogy rather than defective physiologic function inmyonuclei as a possible primary event by mutanthnRNPA1 Nonetheless the cytoplasmic aggregationand nuclear depletion of hnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1and TDP-43 are to a varying degree pathologic hall-marks in common with muscle degeneration inMSP1ndash3 and in sporadic inclusion body myositis2627
Unexpectedly as unreported observations otherPrLD-harboring proteins such as FET family proteinsalso constituted cytoplasmic aggregates in the degener-ating muscle fibers to a lesser extent on FUSTLS (fig-ure 5) Furthermore even proteins without a PrLDsuch as ALSdistal myopathy-linked45 matrin-3 andMSP1-linked VCPp97 formed cytoplasmic coaggre-gation with hnRNPA1 in this study (figure 5) suggest-ing broad involvement of RBPs and their regulatorsRecent reports uncovered a direct interaction amonghnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 and TDP-4328 They havealso suggested the essential role of VCPp97 in theautophagic clearance of excess assembly of nontranslat-ing messenger ribonucleoprotein complexes to preventpathogenic ribonucleoprotein aggregates2930 Togetherwith the results of previous reports whichever is
mutated ribonucleoprotein granulesrsquo hyperassemblyand their defective clearance may be a major pathome-chanism leading to widespread sequestration of theMSPALS-linked proteins and eventual muscle fiberdegeneration
The sarcolemmal dysferlin expression was variedin the presented cases ranging from decreased to nor-mal immunoreactivity Although comorbid loss ofdysferlin in biopsied muscles is occasionally observedin dystrophinopathy sarcoglycanopathy caveolinop-athy calpainopathy and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis31 loss of physiologic function of dysferlinhas not been reported in MSPs to date Thus thepossible association between dysferlin and hnRNPA1remains to be elucidated
We have reported dominantly inherited isolatedIBM as a novel phenotype of MSP3 Muscle weaknessas an isolated symptom is estimated to account forapproximately 30 of all symptoms in MSP12432 Inaddition to the rare involvement of bone reported inAsian patients withMSP133 PDB itself is infrequent inthe Japanese population34 Therefore such ethnic dif-ferences in genetic background may be associated withthe Japanese MSP3 phenotype The selective involve-ment of skeletal muscles reported in this study shouldbe confirmed particularly by pathologic analyses as acumulative case study Nevertheless the present resultssuggest that mutations in hnRNPA1 and possiblyhnRNPA2B1 will be identified in patients with a puremuscular phenotype specifically presenting etiology-unknown IBM as was the case with hnRNP-associatedgenes reported in Welander distal myopathy and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 1G35ndash37 The precise evalua-tion of these cases will help to elucidate the diseasefrequency penetrance genotypendashphenotype correla-tion and natural history of patients with MSPs Theunresolved issue will be challenged by the developmentof cellular and animal models strictly reflecting MSPs
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSRumiko Izumi principal author designed the study analyzed and inter-
preted the data drafted the manuscript Hitoshi Warita coauthor de-
signed the study performed the immunohistochemical study of
biopsied muscle specimens and revised the manuscript Tetsuya Niihori
and Yoko Aoki coauthors designed the study analyzed and interpreted
the data and revised the manuscript Toshiaki Takahashi Satomi Mitsu-
hashi and Ichizo Nishino coauthors acquired and provided data Maki
Tateyama coauthor performed the light and electron microscopic study
of the biopsied muscles and revised the manuscript Naoki Suzuki and
Masashi Aoki coauthors revised the manuscript Ayumi Nishiyama
coauthor performed the Sanger sequencing Matsuyuki Shirota Ryo
Funayama and Keiko Nakayama coauthors analyzed and interpreted
the data
ACKNOWLEDGMENTThe authors appreciate the cooperation of the patients and their families
and are grateful to Drs Kazuo Kobayashi Hideki Mizuno Takafumi Ha-
segawa Ohito Tano and Hiroshi Kuroda for their fruitful discussions and
Yoko Tateda Kumi Kato Riyo Takahashi Naoko Shimakura Risa Ando
Maya Narisawa Miyuki Tsuda Makiko Nakagawa Mami Kikuchi and
10 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Kiyotaka Kuroda for technical assistance Moreover the support of the
Biomedical Research Core of Tohoku University Graduate School of Med-
icine is also gratefully acknowledged
STUDY FUNDINGThis study was supported by an Intramural Research Grant (26-8) for
Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders of NCNP the grant on Research
on Rare and Intractable Diseases (H26-intractable disease 037 and 082)
from the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan the Ministry
of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan (H26-Nanchitou(Nan)-Ippan-
079) Grants-in-Aid for research on rare and intractable diseases the
Research Committee on Establishment of Novel Treatments for Amyo-
trophic Lateral Sclerosis Grants-in-Aid from the Research Committee
of CNS Degenerative Diseases from the Japanese Ministry of Health
Labor and Welfare Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (25293199
and 26461288) Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from the Japanese Ministry of Education Culture Sports
Science and Technology
DISCLOSUREDr Izumi reports no disclosures Dr Warita has received research sup-
port from Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (26461288 25293199
and 23591229) and Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Japan Dr Niihori and Dr Takahashi report no disclosures Dr Tateya-
ma has received honoraria for lecturing from Daiichi Sankyo company
and has received research support from the Japan Society of the Promo-
tion of Science (KAKENHI 25461265) Dr Suzuki and Dr Nishiyama
report no disclosures Dr Shirota has received research support from
MEXT JSPS KAKENHI (26730148) and JST (14533504) Dr
Funayama has a patent pending on the quantitative ChIP-seq technology
and has received research support from the grant on Research on Rare
and Intractable Diseases from the Ministry of Health Labour and Wel-
fare (Japan) an Intramural Research Grant for Neurological and Psychi-
atric Disorders of NCNP and Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Dr Nakayama
and Dr Mitsuhashi report no disclosures Dr Nishino serves on the sci-
entific advisory board for Nobelpharma Ultragenyx and Genzyme
serves as an editorial board member of Neuromuscular Disorders Neurol-
ogy and Clinical Neuroscience eNeurologicalSci Skeletal Muscle Journal of
Neuromuscular Diseases Journal of the Neurological Sciences Rinsho Shin-
keigaku Chinese Journal of Contemporary Neurology and Neurosurgery and
Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders has a patent pending on
the therapeutic pharmaceutical agent for diseases associated with decrease
in function of GNE protein food composition and food additive has
received honoraria from Genzyme Japan and has received research sup-
port from Genzyme Japan Novartis Japan Astellas JSPS (KAKENHI
httpngneurologyorgcgicollectionall_geneticsAll Geneticsfollowing collection(s) This article along with others on similar topics appears in the
Permissions amp Licensing
httpngneurologyorgmiscaboutxhtmlpermissionsits entirety can be found online atInformation about reproducing this article in parts (figurestables) or in
Reprints
httpngneurologyorgmiscaddirxhtmlreprintsusInformation about ordering reprints can be found online
Neurology All rights reserved Online ISSN 2376-7839an open-access online-only continuous publication journal Copyright copy 2015 American Academy of
is an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology Published since April 2015 it isNeurol Genet
Muscle histopathology of the 2 families was com-patible with IBM Common features were increasedrimmed vacuoles absence of inflammation andapparent neurogenic change and slight muscle fibernecrosis and regeneration The involvement of
neurogenic atrophy was not completely excludedbecause of angulated fibers (figure 2A) pyknoticnuclear clumps (figure 2B) and several type 1 fibersmaking a small group (figure 2 I and J) whereas ourspecimen lacked the findings of large group atrophy
Figure 5 Multiple immunohistochemistry for various RNA-binding proteins and VCPp97
Representative microphotographs of transverse cryosections from the specimens of patient III-2 in family 1 (AndashD) Note theperinuclear and subsarcolemmal aggregation of fused in sarcomatranslated in liposarcoma (FUSTLS) with sparse staining incytoplasm (arrows) whereas FUSTLS mislocalization was scarcely observed (EndashH) In atrophic fibers (asterisks) diffuse cyto-plasmic expression and extranuclearsubsarcolemmal aggregation of TATA-binding proteinndashassociated factor 2N (TAF15)were frequently found The aggregation is partially colabeled with ubiquitin (arrowheads) (IndashL) In addition to heterogeneousnuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A1 and A2B1 Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 (EWSR1) and sequestome-1p62(SQSTM1p62) double-positive aggregation was observed in rimmed vacuoles (arrows) (MndashP) Note the multisystem protein-opathy 1ndashlinked valosin-containing protein (VCP)p97 SQSTM1p62 and hnRNPA1 triple-labeled aggregates in the rimmedvacuoles (arrows) (QndashT) In atrophic fibers amyotrophic lateral sclerosisdistal myopathyndashlinked matrin-3 was aberrantlyinvolved in the subsarcolemmal SQSTM1p62-positive aggregates (arrowheads) Scale bars 5 50 mm
Neurology Genetics 9
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
or apparent fiber type grouping These pathologicfindings share a close resemblance to those of IBMwith the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 We haveclearly identified autophagic vacuoles containingmyeloid bodies which often neighbored irregularlyshaped or indented myonuclei Similar pathologicfindings were also reported in patients with a muta-tion in MATR345 In addition enlarged myonuclearpores and amorphous materials along the nuclearmembrane were reported in a patient with MSP3with the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 Thereforethe question of whether this perinuclear pathologyreflects possible dysfunction of RBPs and myonucleiis of interest
Cytoplasmic retention and subsarcolemmalperinu-clear aggregation of the hnRNPA1 protein in degener-ating myofibers were prominent features revealed byimmunohistochemistry (figure 4) The distribution ofhnRNPA1-postitive aggregates corresponds closely toclusters of autophagic vacuoles ultrastructurally More-over the aggregated hnRNPA1 frequently coexistedwith Ub and an autophagic substrate (Ser403-phosphorylated) SQSTM1p62 These congruentevents suggest an aberrantly increased burden triggeredby the hnRNPA1mutation on the intrinsic protein deg-radation system including selective autophagy25
TDP-43 pathology comprising cytoplasmic aggrega-tion and nuclear exclusion was also abundant in ourstudy (figure 4) consistent with previous observationsin patients carrying the pD314V hnRNPA1mutation2
Despite the resemblance mislocalization or clearance ofmyonuclear hnRNPA1A2B1 was barely found in ourspecimens (figure e-1) suggesting sarcoplasmic pathol-ogy rather than defective physiologic function inmyonuclei as a possible primary event by mutanthnRNPA1 Nonetheless the cytoplasmic aggregationand nuclear depletion of hnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1and TDP-43 are to a varying degree pathologic hall-marks in common with muscle degeneration inMSP1ndash3 and in sporadic inclusion body myositis2627
Unexpectedly as unreported observations otherPrLD-harboring proteins such as FET family proteinsalso constituted cytoplasmic aggregates in the degener-ating muscle fibers to a lesser extent on FUSTLS (fig-ure 5) Furthermore even proteins without a PrLDsuch as ALSdistal myopathy-linked45 matrin-3 andMSP1-linked VCPp97 formed cytoplasmic coaggre-gation with hnRNPA1 in this study (figure 5) suggest-ing broad involvement of RBPs and their regulatorsRecent reports uncovered a direct interaction amonghnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 and TDP-4328 They havealso suggested the essential role of VCPp97 in theautophagic clearance of excess assembly of nontranslat-ing messenger ribonucleoprotein complexes to preventpathogenic ribonucleoprotein aggregates2930 Togetherwith the results of previous reports whichever is
mutated ribonucleoprotein granulesrsquo hyperassemblyand their defective clearance may be a major pathome-chanism leading to widespread sequestration of theMSPALS-linked proteins and eventual muscle fiberdegeneration
The sarcolemmal dysferlin expression was variedin the presented cases ranging from decreased to nor-mal immunoreactivity Although comorbid loss ofdysferlin in biopsied muscles is occasionally observedin dystrophinopathy sarcoglycanopathy caveolinop-athy calpainopathy and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis31 loss of physiologic function of dysferlinhas not been reported in MSPs to date Thus thepossible association between dysferlin and hnRNPA1remains to be elucidated
We have reported dominantly inherited isolatedIBM as a novel phenotype of MSP3 Muscle weaknessas an isolated symptom is estimated to account forapproximately 30 of all symptoms in MSP12432 Inaddition to the rare involvement of bone reported inAsian patients withMSP133 PDB itself is infrequent inthe Japanese population34 Therefore such ethnic dif-ferences in genetic background may be associated withthe Japanese MSP3 phenotype The selective involve-ment of skeletal muscles reported in this study shouldbe confirmed particularly by pathologic analyses as acumulative case study Nevertheless the present resultssuggest that mutations in hnRNPA1 and possiblyhnRNPA2B1 will be identified in patients with a puremuscular phenotype specifically presenting etiology-unknown IBM as was the case with hnRNP-associatedgenes reported in Welander distal myopathy and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 1G35ndash37 The precise evalua-tion of these cases will help to elucidate the diseasefrequency penetrance genotypendashphenotype correla-tion and natural history of patients with MSPs Theunresolved issue will be challenged by the developmentof cellular and animal models strictly reflecting MSPs
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSRumiko Izumi principal author designed the study analyzed and inter-
preted the data drafted the manuscript Hitoshi Warita coauthor de-
signed the study performed the immunohistochemical study of
biopsied muscle specimens and revised the manuscript Tetsuya Niihori
and Yoko Aoki coauthors designed the study analyzed and interpreted
the data and revised the manuscript Toshiaki Takahashi Satomi Mitsu-
hashi and Ichizo Nishino coauthors acquired and provided data Maki
Tateyama coauthor performed the light and electron microscopic study
of the biopsied muscles and revised the manuscript Naoki Suzuki and
Masashi Aoki coauthors revised the manuscript Ayumi Nishiyama
coauthor performed the Sanger sequencing Matsuyuki Shirota Ryo
Funayama and Keiko Nakayama coauthors analyzed and interpreted
the data
ACKNOWLEDGMENTThe authors appreciate the cooperation of the patients and their families
and are grateful to Drs Kazuo Kobayashi Hideki Mizuno Takafumi Ha-
segawa Ohito Tano and Hiroshi Kuroda for their fruitful discussions and
Yoko Tateda Kumi Kato Riyo Takahashi Naoko Shimakura Risa Ando
Maya Narisawa Miyuki Tsuda Makiko Nakagawa Mami Kikuchi and
10 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Kiyotaka Kuroda for technical assistance Moreover the support of the
Biomedical Research Core of Tohoku University Graduate School of Med-
icine is also gratefully acknowledged
STUDY FUNDINGThis study was supported by an Intramural Research Grant (26-8) for
Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders of NCNP the grant on Research
on Rare and Intractable Diseases (H26-intractable disease 037 and 082)
from the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan the Ministry
of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan (H26-Nanchitou(Nan)-Ippan-
079) Grants-in-Aid for research on rare and intractable diseases the
Research Committee on Establishment of Novel Treatments for Amyo-
trophic Lateral Sclerosis Grants-in-Aid from the Research Committee
of CNS Degenerative Diseases from the Japanese Ministry of Health
Labor and Welfare Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (25293199
and 26461288) Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from the Japanese Ministry of Education Culture Sports
Science and Technology
DISCLOSUREDr Izumi reports no disclosures Dr Warita has received research sup-
port from Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (26461288 25293199
and 23591229) and Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Japan Dr Niihori and Dr Takahashi report no disclosures Dr Tateya-
ma has received honoraria for lecturing from Daiichi Sankyo company
and has received research support from the Japan Society of the Promo-
tion of Science (KAKENHI 25461265) Dr Suzuki and Dr Nishiyama
report no disclosures Dr Shirota has received research support from
MEXT JSPS KAKENHI (26730148) and JST (14533504) Dr
Funayama has a patent pending on the quantitative ChIP-seq technology
and has received research support from the grant on Research on Rare
and Intractable Diseases from the Ministry of Health Labour and Wel-
fare (Japan) an Intramural Research Grant for Neurological and Psychi-
atric Disorders of NCNP and Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Dr Nakayama
and Dr Mitsuhashi report no disclosures Dr Nishino serves on the sci-
entific advisory board for Nobelpharma Ultragenyx and Genzyme
serves as an editorial board member of Neuromuscular Disorders Neurol-
ogy and Clinical Neuroscience eNeurologicalSci Skeletal Muscle Journal of
Neuromuscular Diseases Journal of the Neurological Sciences Rinsho Shin-
keigaku Chinese Journal of Contemporary Neurology and Neurosurgery and
Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders has a patent pending on
the therapeutic pharmaceutical agent for diseases associated with decrease
in function of GNE protein food composition and food additive has
received honoraria from Genzyme Japan and has received research sup-
port from Genzyme Japan Novartis Japan Astellas JSPS (KAKENHI
httpngneurologyorgcgicollectionall_geneticsAll Geneticsfollowing collection(s) This article along with others on similar topics appears in the
Permissions amp Licensing
httpngneurologyorgmiscaboutxhtmlpermissionsits entirety can be found online atInformation about reproducing this article in parts (figurestables) or in
Reprints
httpngneurologyorgmiscaddirxhtmlreprintsusInformation about ordering reprints can be found online
Neurology All rights reserved Online ISSN 2376-7839an open-access online-only continuous publication journal Copyright copy 2015 American Academy of
is an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology Published since April 2015 it isNeurol Genet
or apparent fiber type grouping These pathologicfindings share a close resemblance to those of IBMwith the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 We haveclearly identified autophagic vacuoles containingmyeloid bodies which often neighbored irregularlyshaped or indented myonuclei Similar pathologicfindings were also reported in patients with a muta-tion in MATR345 In addition enlarged myonuclearpores and amorphous materials along the nuclearmembrane were reported in a patient with MSP3with the pD314V hnRNPA1 mutation22 Thereforethe question of whether this perinuclear pathologyreflects possible dysfunction of RBPs and myonucleiis of interest
Cytoplasmic retention and subsarcolemmalperinu-clear aggregation of the hnRNPA1 protein in degener-ating myofibers were prominent features revealed byimmunohistochemistry (figure 4) The distribution ofhnRNPA1-postitive aggregates corresponds closely toclusters of autophagic vacuoles ultrastructurally More-over the aggregated hnRNPA1 frequently coexistedwith Ub and an autophagic substrate (Ser403-phosphorylated) SQSTM1p62 These congruentevents suggest an aberrantly increased burden triggeredby the hnRNPA1mutation on the intrinsic protein deg-radation system including selective autophagy25
TDP-43 pathology comprising cytoplasmic aggrega-tion and nuclear exclusion was also abundant in ourstudy (figure 4) consistent with previous observationsin patients carrying the pD314V hnRNPA1mutation2
Despite the resemblance mislocalization or clearance ofmyonuclear hnRNPA1A2B1 was barely found in ourspecimens (figure e-1) suggesting sarcoplasmic pathol-ogy rather than defective physiologic function inmyonuclei as a possible primary event by mutanthnRNPA1 Nonetheless the cytoplasmic aggregationand nuclear depletion of hnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1and TDP-43 are to a varying degree pathologic hall-marks in common with muscle degeneration inMSP1ndash3 and in sporadic inclusion body myositis2627
Unexpectedly as unreported observations otherPrLD-harboring proteins such as FET family proteinsalso constituted cytoplasmic aggregates in the degener-ating muscle fibers to a lesser extent on FUSTLS (fig-ure 5) Furthermore even proteins without a PrLDsuch as ALSdistal myopathy-linked45 matrin-3 andMSP1-linked VCPp97 formed cytoplasmic coaggre-gation with hnRNPA1 in this study (figure 5) suggest-ing broad involvement of RBPs and their regulatorsRecent reports uncovered a direct interaction amonghnRNPA1 hnRNPA2B1 and TDP-4328 They havealso suggested the essential role of VCPp97 in theautophagic clearance of excess assembly of nontranslat-ing messenger ribonucleoprotein complexes to preventpathogenic ribonucleoprotein aggregates2930 Togetherwith the results of previous reports whichever is
mutated ribonucleoprotein granulesrsquo hyperassemblyand their defective clearance may be a major pathome-chanism leading to widespread sequestration of theMSPALS-linked proteins and eventual muscle fiberdegeneration
The sarcolemmal dysferlin expression was variedin the presented cases ranging from decreased to nor-mal immunoreactivity Although comorbid loss ofdysferlin in biopsied muscles is occasionally observedin dystrophinopathy sarcoglycanopathy caveolinop-athy calpainopathy and sporadic inclusion bodymyositis31 loss of physiologic function of dysferlinhas not been reported in MSPs to date Thus thepossible association between dysferlin and hnRNPA1remains to be elucidated
We have reported dominantly inherited isolatedIBM as a novel phenotype of MSP3 Muscle weaknessas an isolated symptom is estimated to account forapproximately 30 of all symptoms in MSP12432 Inaddition to the rare involvement of bone reported inAsian patients withMSP133 PDB itself is infrequent inthe Japanese population34 Therefore such ethnic dif-ferences in genetic background may be associated withthe Japanese MSP3 phenotype The selective involve-ment of skeletal muscles reported in this study shouldbe confirmed particularly by pathologic analyses as acumulative case study Nevertheless the present resultssuggest that mutations in hnRNPA1 and possiblyhnRNPA2B1 will be identified in patients with a puremuscular phenotype specifically presenting etiology-unknown IBM as was the case with hnRNP-associatedgenes reported in Welander distal myopathy and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 1G35ndash37 The precise evalua-tion of these cases will help to elucidate the diseasefrequency penetrance genotypendashphenotype correla-tion and natural history of patients with MSPs Theunresolved issue will be challenged by the developmentof cellular and animal models strictly reflecting MSPs
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSRumiko Izumi principal author designed the study analyzed and inter-
preted the data drafted the manuscript Hitoshi Warita coauthor de-
signed the study performed the immunohistochemical study of
biopsied muscle specimens and revised the manuscript Tetsuya Niihori
and Yoko Aoki coauthors designed the study analyzed and interpreted
the data and revised the manuscript Toshiaki Takahashi Satomi Mitsu-
hashi and Ichizo Nishino coauthors acquired and provided data Maki
Tateyama coauthor performed the light and electron microscopic study
of the biopsied muscles and revised the manuscript Naoki Suzuki and
Masashi Aoki coauthors revised the manuscript Ayumi Nishiyama
coauthor performed the Sanger sequencing Matsuyuki Shirota Ryo
Funayama and Keiko Nakayama coauthors analyzed and interpreted
the data
ACKNOWLEDGMENTThe authors appreciate the cooperation of the patients and their families
and are grateful to Drs Kazuo Kobayashi Hideki Mizuno Takafumi Ha-
segawa Ohito Tano and Hiroshi Kuroda for their fruitful discussions and
Yoko Tateda Kumi Kato Riyo Takahashi Naoko Shimakura Risa Ando
Maya Narisawa Miyuki Tsuda Makiko Nakagawa Mami Kikuchi and
10 Neurology Genetics
ordf 2015 American Academy of Neurology Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited
Kiyotaka Kuroda for technical assistance Moreover the support of the
Biomedical Research Core of Tohoku University Graduate School of Med-
icine is also gratefully acknowledged
STUDY FUNDINGThis study was supported by an Intramural Research Grant (26-8) for
Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders of NCNP the grant on Research
on Rare and Intractable Diseases (H26-intractable disease 037 and 082)
from the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan the Ministry
of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan (H26-Nanchitou(Nan)-Ippan-
079) Grants-in-Aid for research on rare and intractable diseases the
Research Committee on Establishment of Novel Treatments for Amyo-
trophic Lateral Sclerosis Grants-in-Aid from the Research Committee
of CNS Degenerative Diseases from the Japanese Ministry of Health
Labor and Welfare Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (25293199
and 26461288) Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from the Japanese Ministry of Education Culture Sports
Science and Technology
DISCLOSUREDr Izumi reports no disclosures Dr Warita has received research sup-
port from Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (26461288 25293199
and 23591229) and Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Japan Dr Niihori and Dr Takahashi report no disclosures Dr Tateya-
ma has received honoraria for lecturing from Daiichi Sankyo company
and has received research support from the Japan Society of the Promo-
tion of Science (KAKENHI 25461265) Dr Suzuki and Dr Nishiyama
report no disclosures Dr Shirota has received research support from
MEXT JSPS KAKENHI (26730148) and JST (14533504) Dr
Funayama has a patent pending on the quantitative ChIP-seq technology
and has received research support from the grant on Research on Rare
and Intractable Diseases from the Ministry of Health Labour and Wel-
fare (Japan) an Intramural Research Grant for Neurological and Psychi-
atric Disorders of NCNP and Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Dr Nakayama
and Dr Mitsuhashi report no disclosures Dr Nishino serves on the sci-
entific advisory board for Nobelpharma Ultragenyx and Genzyme
serves as an editorial board member of Neuromuscular Disorders Neurol-
ogy and Clinical Neuroscience eNeurologicalSci Skeletal Muscle Journal of
Neuromuscular Diseases Journal of the Neurological Sciences Rinsho Shin-
keigaku Chinese Journal of Contemporary Neurology and Neurosurgery and
Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders has a patent pending on
the therapeutic pharmaceutical agent for diseases associated with decrease
in function of GNE protein food composition and food additive has
received honoraria from Genzyme Japan and has received research sup-
port from Genzyme Japan Novartis Japan Astellas JSPS (KAKENHI
httpngneurologyorgcgicollectionall_geneticsAll Geneticsfollowing collection(s) This article along with others on similar topics appears in the
Permissions amp Licensing
httpngneurologyorgmiscaboutxhtmlpermissionsits entirety can be found online atInformation about reproducing this article in parts (figurestables) or in
Reprints
httpngneurologyorgmiscaddirxhtmlreprintsusInformation about ordering reprints can be found online
Neurology All rights reserved Online ISSN 2376-7839an open-access online-only continuous publication journal Copyright copy 2015 American Academy of
is an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology Published since April 2015 it isNeurol Genet
Kiyotaka Kuroda for technical assistance Moreover the support of the
Biomedical Research Core of Tohoku University Graduate School of Med-
icine is also gratefully acknowledged
STUDY FUNDINGThis study was supported by an Intramural Research Grant (26-8) for
Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders of NCNP the grant on Research
on Rare and Intractable Diseases (H26-intractable disease 037 and 082)
from the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan the Ministry
of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan (H26-Nanchitou(Nan)-Ippan-
079) Grants-in-Aid for research on rare and intractable diseases the
Research Committee on Establishment of Novel Treatments for Amyo-
trophic Lateral Sclerosis Grants-in-Aid from the Research Committee
of CNS Degenerative Diseases from the Japanese Ministry of Health
Labor and Welfare Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (25293199
and 26461288) Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from the Japanese Ministry of Education Culture Sports
Science and Technology
DISCLOSUREDr Izumi reports no disclosures Dr Warita has received research sup-
port from Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (26461288 25293199
and 23591229) and Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
(26670436) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Japan Dr Niihori and Dr Takahashi report no disclosures Dr Tateya-
ma has received honoraria for lecturing from Daiichi Sankyo company
and has received research support from the Japan Society of the Promo-
tion of Science (KAKENHI 25461265) Dr Suzuki and Dr Nishiyama
report no disclosures Dr Shirota has received research support from
MEXT JSPS KAKENHI (26730148) and JST (14533504) Dr
Funayama has a patent pending on the quantitative ChIP-seq technology
and has received research support from the grant on Research on Rare
and Intractable Diseases from the Ministry of Health Labour and Wel-
fare (Japan) an Intramural Research Grant for Neurological and Psychi-
atric Disorders of NCNP and Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Dr Nakayama
and Dr Mitsuhashi report no disclosures Dr Nishino serves on the sci-
entific advisory board for Nobelpharma Ultragenyx and Genzyme
serves as an editorial board member of Neuromuscular Disorders Neurol-
ogy and Clinical Neuroscience eNeurologicalSci Skeletal Muscle Journal of
Neuromuscular Diseases Journal of the Neurological Sciences Rinsho Shin-
keigaku Chinese Journal of Contemporary Neurology and Neurosurgery and
Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders has a patent pending on
the therapeutic pharmaceutical agent for diseases associated with decrease
in function of GNE protein food composition and food additive has
received honoraria from Genzyme Japan and has received research sup-
port from Genzyme Japan Novartis Japan Astellas JSPS (KAKENHI
httpngneurologyorgcgicollectionall_geneticsAll Geneticsfollowing collection(s) This article along with others on similar topics appears in the
Permissions amp Licensing
httpngneurologyorgmiscaboutxhtmlpermissionsits entirety can be found online atInformation about reproducing this article in parts (figurestables) or in
Reprints
httpngneurologyorgmiscaddirxhtmlreprintsusInformation about ordering reprints can be found online
Neurology All rights reserved Online ISSN 2376-7839an open-access online-only continuous publication journal Copyright copy 2015 American Academy of
is an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology Published since April 2015 it isNeurol Genet
21 Brais B Bouchard JP Xie YG et al Short GCG expan-
sions in the PABP2 gene cause oculopharyngeal muscular
dystrophy Nat Genet 199818164ndash167
22 Kottlors M Moske-Eick O Huebner A et al Late-onset
autosomal dominant limb girdle muscular dystrophy and
Pagetrsquos disease of bone unlinked to the VCP gene locus
J Neurol Sci 201029179ndash85
23 Kimonis VE Mehta SG Fulchiero EC et al Clinical
studies in familial VCP myopathy associated with Paget
disease of bone and frontotemporal dementia Am J Med
Genet A 2008146A745ndash757
24 Weihl CC Pestronk A Kimonis VE Valosin-containing
protein disease inclusion body myopathy with Pagetrsquos dis-
ease of the bone and fronto-temporal dementia Neuro-
muscul Disord 200919308ndash315
25 Matsumoto G Wada K Okuno M Kurosawa M
Nukina N Serine 403 phosphorylation of p62SQSTM1
regulates selective autophagic clearance of ubiquitinated
proteins Mol Cell 201144279ndash289
26 Pinkus JL Amato AA Taylor JP Greenberg SA Abnor-
mal distribution of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleopro-
teins in sporadic inclusion body myositis Neuromuscul
Disord 201424611ndash616
27 Yamashita S Kimura E Tawara N et al Optineurin is
potentially associated with TDP-43 and involved in the
pathogenesis of inclusion body myositis Neuropathol
Appl Neurobiol 201339406ndash416
28 Buratti E Brindisi A Giombi M Tisminetzky S
Ayala YM Baralle FE TDP-43 binds heterogeneous
nuclear ribonucleoprotein AB through its C-terminal tail
an important region for the inhibition of cystic fibrosis
httpngneurologyorgcgicollectionall_geneticsAll Geneticsfollowing collection(s) This article along with others on similar topics appears in the
Permissions amp Licensing
httpngneurologyorgmiscaboutxhtmlpermissionsits entirety can be found online atInformation about reproducing this article in parts (figurestables) or in
Reprints
httpngneurologyorgmiscaddirxhtmlreprintsusInformation about ordering reprints can be found online
Neurology All rights reserved Online ISSN 2376-7839an open-access online-only continuous publication journal Copyright copy 2015 American Academy of
is an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology Published since April 2015 it isNeurol Genet
DOI 101212NXG000000000000002320151 Neurol Genet
Rumiko Izumi Hitoshi Warita Tetsuya Niihori et al mutationhnRNPA1
linked minusIsolated inclusion body myopathy caused by a multisystem proteinopathy
This information is current as of September 24 2015
ServicesUpdated Information amp
httpngneurologyorgcontent13e23fullhtmlincluding high resolution figures can be found at
Supplementary Material httpngneurologyorgcontentsuppl2015092513e23DC1
httpngneurologyorgcgicollectionall_geneticsAll Geneticsfollowing collection(s) This article along with others on similar topics appears in the
Permissions amp Licensing
httpngneurologyorgmiscaboutxhtmlpermissionsits entirety can be found online atInformation about reproducing this article in parts (figurestables) or in
Reprints
httpngneurologyorgmiscaddirxhtmlreprintsusInformation about ordering reprints can be found online
Neurology All rights reserved Online ISSN 2376-7839an open-access online-only continuous publication journal Copyright copy 2015 American Academy of
is an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology Published since April 2015 it isNeurol Genet