RNA SEQUESTRATION TO PATHOLOGICAL LESIONS OF NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES

Cytoplasmic RNA species have been identified recently within neurofibr illary tangles and senile plaques of Alzheimer's disease brain. To det ermine whether RNA sequestration is a common feature of other lesions found in progressive neurodegenerative disorders, acridine orange hist ofluorescence was employed, alone or in combination with immunohistoch emistry and thioflavine-S staining to identify RNA species in paraffin -embedded brain tissue sections. Postmortem samples came from 39 subje cts with the following diagnoses: Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lat eral sclerosis/parkinsonism-dementia complex of Guam, corticobasal deg eneration, diffuse Lewy body disease, normal controls, multiple system atrophy, Parkinson's disease, Pick's disease, progressive supranuclea r palsy, and Shy-Drager syndrome. RNAs were detected in neurofibrillar y tangles and neuritic senile plaques as well as in Pick bodies. Howev er, Lewy bodies, Hirano bodies, and cytoplasmic glial inclusions did n ot contain abundant cytoplasmic RNA species. These observations demons trate the selective localization of RNA species to distinct pathologic al lesions of neurodegenerative disease brains.