ATXN8 and spinocerebellar ataxia type 8: Moreover, RAN-translated poly-alanine proteins driven from ATXN8 CAG repeat transcripts were further characterised in a mouse model of SCA8 and in human SCA8 brain tissue (Zu et al., 2011) suggesting that overall the pathogenesis of SCA8 involves both RNA (Daughters et al., 2009) and protein (Zu et al., 2011) toxic gain-of-functions.