Description
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that primarily affects the motor neurons, causing progressive muscle weakness and paralysis. While research has focused on understanding pathological mechanisms in the motor cortex and spinal cord, there is growing evidence that extra-motor brain regions may also play a role in the pathogenesis or progression of ALS. We generated 165 sample-matched post-mortem brain transcriptomes from 22 sporadic ALS patients with pTDP-43 pathological staging and 11 non-neurological controls. For each individual, five brain regions underwent mRNA sequencing: motor cortex (pTDP-43 inclusions always present), prefrontal cortex and hippocampus (pTDP-43 inclusions sometimes present), and occipital cortex and cerebellum (pTDP-43 inclusions rarely present). We conducted a comprehensive bioinformatic analysis of transcriptome alterations, comparing ALS-specific changes between brain regions. We also considered whether post-mortem pTDP-43 pathological stage classification defined ALS subgroups with distinct gene expression profiles.