Laboratory of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Creatio, Production and Validation Center of Advanced Therapies, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Cell Mol Life Sci. 2023 Aug 3;80(8):238. doi: 10.1007/s00018-023-04882-w.
Huntington's disease (HD) is an incurable inherited brain disorder characterised by massive degeneration of striatal neurons, which correlates with abnormal accumulation of misfolded mutant huntingtin (mHTT) protein. Research on HD has been hampered by the inability to study early dysfunction and progressive degeneration of human striatal neurons in vivo. To investigate human pathogenesis in a physiologically relevant context, we transplanted human pluripotent stem cell-derived neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) from control and HD patients into the striatum of new-born mice. Most hNPCs differentiated into striatal neurons that projected to their target areas and established synaptic connexions within the host basal ganglia circuitry. Remarkably, HD human striatal neurons first developed soluble forms of mHTT, which primarily targeted endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria and nuclear membrane to cause structural alterations. Furthermore, HD human cells secreted extracellular vesicles containing mHTT monomers and oligomers, which were internalised by non-mutated mouse striatal neurons triggering cell death. We conclude that interaction of mHTT soluble forms with key cellular organelles initially drives disease progression in HD patients and their transmission through exosomes contributes to spread the disease in a non-cell autonomous manner.
亨廷顿病(HD)是一种无法治愈的遗传性脑疾病,其特征是纹状体神经元大量退化,这与异常折叠的突变亨廷顿蛋白(mHTT)的积累有关。由于无法在体内研究人类纹状体神经元的早期功能障碍和进行性退化,因此对 HD 的研究受到了阻碍。为了在生理相关的背景下研究人类发病机制,我们将来自对照和 HD 患者的人多能干细胞衍生的神经祖细胞(hNPC)移植到新生小鼠的纹状体中。大多数 hNPC 分化为纹状体神经元,投射到其靶区,并在宿主基底神经节回路中建立突触连接。值得注意的是,HD 人类纹状体神经元首先产生 mHTT 的可溶性形式,这些可溶性形式主要靶向内质网、线粒体和核膜,导致结构改变。此外,HD 人类细胞分泌含有 mHTT 单体和寡聚体的细胞外囊泡,这些囊泡被非突变的小鼠纹状体神经元内化,引发细胞死亡。我们得出结论,mHTT 可溶性形式与关键细胞细胞器的相互作用最初驱动了 HD 患者的疾病进展,并且通过外泌体传播有助于以非细胞自主的方式传播疾病。
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