Polyglutamine-expanded androgen receptor interferes with TFEB to elicit autophagy defects in SBMA

Spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) is a neurodegenerative disorder that results from a polyglutamine repeat expansion in the androgen receptor (polyQ-AR). In this study, the authors show that autophagy is dysregulated in SBMA mice and in neural precursors obtained from iPSCs derived from human patients and that this results from an impaired interaction between AR and the transcription factor TFEB.