Fu Shuai, Wynshaw-Boris Anthony
Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences, Case Western Reserve University; Cleveland, OH, USA.
Present address: Genomic Analysis Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA.
bioRxiv. 2025 Mar 13:2025.03.12.642693. doi: 10.1101/2025.03.12.642693.
The alteration of neural progenitor cell (NPC) proliferation underlies autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It remains unclear whether targeting convergent downstream targets among mutations from different genes and individuals can rescue this alteration. We identified as a convergent target of three autism risk genes: , , and , using isogenic iPSC-derived 2D NPCs. Overexpression of the PBX1a isoform effectively rescued increased NPC proliferation in all three isogenic ASD-related variants. Dysregulation of in NPCs was further confirmed in publicly available datasets from other models of ASD. These findings spotlight , known to play important roles during olfactory bulb/adult neurogenesis and in multiple cancers, as an unexpected and key downstream target, influencing NPC proliferation in ASD and neurodevelopmental syndromes.
神经祖细胞（NPC）增殖的改变是自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的基础。目前尚不清楚针对不同基因和个体突变中的趋同下游靶点是否能够挽救这种改变。我们使用同基因诱导多能干细胞（iPSC）衍生的二维NPCs，确定了PBX1a作为三个自闭症风险基因（SHANK3、NRXN1和DOCK8）的趋同靶点。PBX1a亚型的过表达有效挽救了所有三种同基因ASD相关变体中NPC增殖的增加。在来自其他ASD模型的公开数据集中，进一步证实了NPCs中PBX1a的失调。这些发现突出了PBX1a，已知其在嗅球/成体神经发生以及多种癌症中发挥重要作用，作为一个意想不到的关键下游靶点，影响ASD和神经发育综合征中的NPC增殖。
