APA Dictionary of Psychology

a ubiquitous nuclear RNA-binding protein encoded by the TARDBP gene that is involved in gene expression and RNA metabolism, including transcriptional regulation, pre-mRNA splicing, mRNA stability, and intracellular RNA transport. In disease states, TDP-43 undergoes mislocalization from nucleus to cytoplasm, hyperphosphorylation, aggregation into insoluble inclusions, and loss of nuclear function. Abnormal TDP-43 aggregation is the defining pathology in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43 pathology (FTLD-TDP), and limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE), and may also occur secondarily in Alzheimer's disease, hippocampal sclerosis, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.