Role of neurofilament aggregation in motor neuron disease

A major question in the pathogenesis of motor neuron disease is why motor neurons are selectively susceptible to mutations in widely expressed gene products. Reexamination of motor neuron degeneration due to alterations of neurofilament (NF) expression suggests that disruption of assembly with aggregation of the light neurofilament (NFL) protein may be an upstream event and contributing factor leading to the preferential degeneration of motor neurons. The implications of these findings are that aggregation of NFL is not only a triggering mechanism to account for the hallmark aggregates of NF protein in sporadic and familial forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, but that aggregates of NFL may also promote aggregation of wildly expressed proteins that are destabilized by missense mutations, such as by mutations in superoxide dismutase-1 protein. This review examines the potential role of NFs in determining and promoting the preferential degeneration of motor neurons in motor neuron disease. The underlying premise is that motor neurons are selectively susceptible to alterations in NF expression, that alterations in NF expression lead to NF aggregates in motor neurons, and that elevated levels of NF aggregates provide a favorable microenvironment for the formation of neurotoxic aggregation and degeneration of motor neurons.