Inhibition of mTOR induces autophagy and reduces toxicity of polyglutamine expansions in fly and mouse models of Huntington disease

Huntington disease is one of nine inherited neurodegenerative disorders caused by a polyglutamine tract expansion. Expanded polyglutamine proteins accumulate abnormally in intracellular aggregates. Here we show that mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is sequestered in polyglutamine aggregates in cell models, transgenic mice and human brains. Sequestration of mTOR impairs its kinase activity and induces autophagy, a key clearance pathway for mutant huntingtin fragments.

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Ravikumar, B., et al. (2004). Inhibition of mTOR induces autophagy and reduces toxicity of polyglutamine expansions in fly and mouse models of Huntington disease. Nature Genetics. https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1362

@article{RAV2004,
  author       = {Ravikumar, B. and Rubinsztein, D. C. and others},
  title        = {{Inhibition of mTOR induces autophagy and reduces toxicity of polyglutamine expansions in fly and mouse models of Huntington disease}},
  journal      = {Nature Genetics},
  year         = {2004},
  doi          = {10.1038/ng1362},
  note         = {PMID: 15146184},
}

Cite this Atlas record

The record is the Atlas's own work — the evidence label, the extracted findings and the links. It is cited as part of the dataset, not as the paper.

Barton, O. (2026). Oliver's mTOR Atlas (record RAV2004) [Data set]. https://mtor-atlas.org/study/RAV2004/ · Dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22059963

@misc{atlas_RAV2004,
  author       = {Barton, Oliver},
  title        = {{Oliver's mTOR Atlas}, record RAV2004},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  year         = {2026},
  url          = {https://mtor-atlas.org/study/RAV2004/},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.22059963}
}