ATXN2 and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: In addition, Lee et al. as well as Gispert et al. reported that among several other polyQ neurodegenerative disease proteins, only ATXN2 is associated with ALS risk [21], [22], suggesting that the physiological functions of ataxin-2 in RNA processing and/or receptor tyrosine kinase endocytosis are relevant [23], [24], [25], [26], [27].