Institute of Translational Pharmacology, National Research Council, CNR, 00133, Rome, Italy.
IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Centro Europeo di Ricerca sul Cervello CERC, 00143, Rome, Italy.
Transl Psychiatry. 2023 Feb 20;13(1):63. doi: 10.1038/s41398-023-02357-x.
Female, but not male, mice with haploinsufficiency for the proautophagic Ambra1 gene show an autistic-like phenotype associated with hippocampal circuits dysfunctions which include loss of parvalbuminergic interneurons (PV-IN), decrease in the inhibition/excitation ratio, and abundance of immature dendritic spines on CA1 pyramidal neurons. Given the paucity of data relating to female autism, we exploit the Ambra1 female model to investigate whether rectifying the inhibitory input onto hippocampal principal neurons (PN) rescues their ASD-like phenotype at both the systems and circuits level. Moreover, being the autistic phenotype exclusively observed in the female mice, we control the effect of the mutation and treatment on hippocampal expression of estrogen receptors (ER). Here we show that excitatory DREADDs injected in PV_Cre Ambra1 females augment the inhibitory input onto CA1 principal neurons (PN), rescue their social and attentional impairments, and normalize dendritic spine abnormalities and ER expression in the hippocampus. By providing the first evidence that hippocampal excitability jointly controls autistic-like traits and ER in a model of female autism, our findings identify an autophagy deficiency-related mechanism of hippocampal neural and hormonal dysregulation which opens novel perspectives for treatments specifically designed for autistic females.
雌性而非雄性,Ambra1 基因部分功能缺失的小鼠表现出类似自闭症的表型,与海马回路功能障碍有关,包括 GABA 能中间神经元(PV-IN)丧失、抑制/兴奋比降低以及 CA1 锥体神经元不成熟树突棘的丰度增加。鉴于与女性自闭症相关的数据稀缺,我们利用 Ambra1 女性模型来研究纠正海马主要神经元(PN)的抑制性输入是否可以挽救它们在系统和回路水平上的 ASD 样表型。此外,由于自闭症表型仅在雌性小鼠中观察到,我们控制了突变和治疗对海马雌激素受体(ER)表达的影响。在这里,我们表明,PV_Cre Ambra1 雌性小鼠中注射的兴奋性 DREADDs 增强了 CA1 主要神经元(PN)的抑制性输入,挽救了它们的社交和注意力缺陷,并使海马中的树突棘异常和 ER 表达正常化。通过提供第一个证据表明,海马兴奋性共同控制自闭症样特征和雌性自闭症模型中的 ER,我们的发现确定了与自噬缺陷相关的海马神经和激素失调机制,为专门为自闭症女性设计的治疗方法开辟了新的前景。
Mol Neurobiol. 2018-2-27
Transl Psychiatry. 2017-10-10
Mol Neurobiol. 2019-3-26
J Comp Neurol. 2001-11-12
Front Neural Circuits. 2022
Trends Neurosci. 2021-10
J Neurosci Res. 2021-4
Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2021-2
Mol Psychiatry. 2021-6