Cerebrospinal fluid from frontotemporal dementia patients is toxic to neurons.

Abstract Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by a progressive deterioration of cognitive functions. Currently, no effective treatment exists. We have studied cytotoxicity and neuronal functionality in cortical and spinal cord cultures upon exposure to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from 39 FTD patients. FTD-CSF alters the miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents in the cortical cultures and it is toxic to spinal cord cultures, particularly to GABAergic+ and calbindin-D28k + neurons.