Liu Xiaozhuo, Campanac Emilie, Cheung Hoi-Hung, Ziats Mark N, Canterel-Thouennon Lucile, Raygada Margarita, Baxendale Vanessa, Pang Alan Lap-Yin, Yang Lu, Swedo Susan, Thurm Audrey, Lee Tin-Lap, Fung Kwok-Pui, Chan Wai-Yee, Hoffman Dax A, Rennert Owen M
Laboratory of Clinical and Developmental Genomics, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH), 10 Center Drive, MSC 1255, Building 10, Room 1C-250, Bethesda, MD, 20892-1255, USA.
School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Mol Neurobiol. 2017 Aug;54(6):4507-4523. doi: 10.1007/s12035-016-9961-8. Epub 2016 Jun 29.
Autism spectrum disorder is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder whose pathophysiology remains elusive as a consequence of the unavailability for study of patient brain neurons; this deficit may potentially be circumvented by neural differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells. Rare syndromes with single gene mutations and autistic symptoms have significantly advanced the molecular and cellular understanding of autism spectrum disorders; however, in aggregate, they only represent a fraction of all cases of autism. In an effort to define the cellular and molecular phenotypes in human neurons of non-syndromic autism, we generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from three male autism spectrum disorder patients who had no identifiable clinical syndromes, and their unaffected male siblings and subsequently differentiated these patient-specific stem cells into electrophysiologically active neurons. iPSC-derived neurons from these autistic patients displayed decreases in the frequency and kinetics of spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents relative to controls, as well as significant decreases in Na and inactivating K voltage-gated currents. Moreover, whole-genome microarray analysis of gene expression identified 161 unique genes that were significantly differentially expressed in autistic patient iPSC-derived neurons (>twofold, FDR < 0.05). These genes were significantly enriched for processes related to synaptic transmission, such as neuroactive ligand-receptor signaling and extracellular matrix interactions, and were enriched for genes previously associated with autism spectrum disorder. Our data demonstrate aberrant voltage-gated currents and underlying molecular changes related to synaptic function in iPSC-derived neurons from individuals with idiopathic autism as compared to unaffected siblings controls.
自闭症谱系障碍是一种复杂的神经发育障碍,由于无法获取患者脑神经元进行研究,其病理生理学仍然难以捉摸;诱导多能干细胞的神经分化可能会弥补这一缺陷。具有单基因突变和自闭症症状的罕见综合征极大地推动了对自闭症谱系障碍的分子和细胞层面的理解;然而,总体而言,它们仅占所有自闭症病例的一小部分。为了确定非综合征性自闭症患者人类神经元中的细胞和分子表型,我们从三名无明显临床综合征的男性自闭症谱系障碍患者及其未受影响的男性同胞中生成了诱导多能干细胞(iPSC),随后将这些患者特异性干细胞分化为具有电生理活性的神经元。与对照组相比,这些自闭症患者的iPSC衍生神经元的自发兴奋性突触后电流的频率和动力学降低,同时钠电流和失活钾电压门控电流也显著降低。此外,对基因表达的全基因组微阵列分析确定了161个独特基因,这些基因在自闭症患者的iPSC衍生神经元中显著差异表达(>两倍,FDR < 0.05)。这些基因在与突触传递相关的过程中显著富集,如神经活性配体-受体信号传导和细胞外基质相互作用,并且在先前与自闭症谱系障碍相关的基因中也有富集。我们的数据表明,与未受影响的同胞对照组相比,特发性自闭症个体的iPSC衍生神经元中存在异常的电压门控电流以及与突触功能相关的潜在分子变化。