NEK1 haploinsufficiency worsens DNA damage, but not defective ciliogenesis, in C9ORF72 patient-derived iPSC-motoneurons

The hexanucleotide G4C2 repeat expansion (HRE) in C9ORF72 gene is the major cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), leading to both loss- and gain-of-function pathomechanisms. The wide clinical heterogeneity among C9ORF72 patients suggests potential modifying genetic and epigenetic factors. Notably, C9ORF72 HRE often co-occurs with other rare variants in ALS/FTD-associated genes, such as NEK1, which encodes for a kinase involved in multiple cell pathways, including DNA damage response and ciliogenesis. In this study, we generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and differentiated motoneurons (iPSC-MNs) from an ALS patient carrying both C9ORF72 HRE and a NEK1 loss-of-function mutation to investigate the biological effect of NEK1 haploinsufficiency on C9ORF72 pathology in a condition of oligogenicity. Double mutant C9ORF72/NEK1 cells showed increased pathological C9ORF72 RNA foci in iPSCs and higher DNA damage levels in iPSC-MNs compared to single mutant C9ORF72 cells, but no effect on DNA damage response. When we analysed the primary cilium, we observed a defective ciliogenesis in C9ORF72 iPSC-MNs which was not worsened by NEK1 haploinsufficiency in the double mutant iPSC-MNs. Altogether, our study shows that NEK1 haploinsufficiency influences differently DNA damage and cilia length, potentially acting as a modifier at biological level in an in vitro ALS patient-derived disease model of C9ORF72 pathology.