Zhang Min, Kubota Naoto, Nikom David, Arient Ayden, Zheng Sika
Division of Biomedical Sciences, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, United States.
Center for RNA Biology and Medicine, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.
bioRxiv. 2025 Jun 3:2025.05.30.657115. doi: 10.1101/2025.05.30.657115.
Astrocyte-to-neuron reprogramming via depletion of PTBP1, a potent repressor of neuronal splicing, has been proposed as a therapeutic strategy, but its efficacy remains debated. While some reported successful conversion, others disputed this, citing a lack of neuronal gene expression as evidence of failed reprogramming. This interpretation was further challenged, attributed to incomplete PTBP1 inactivation, fueling ongoing controversy. Mechanistic understanding of the conversion, or the lack thereof, requires investigating, in conjunction with lineage tracing, the effect of loss of function in mature astrocytes on RNA splicing, which has not yet been examined. Here, we genetically ablated PTBP1 in adult Aldh1l1-Cre/ERT2 Ai14 mice to determine whether lineage traced knockout astrocytes exhibited RNA splicing alterations congruent with neuronal differentiation. We found no widespread induction of neurons, despite a minuscule fraction of knockout cells showing neuron-like transcriptomic signatures. Importantly, PTBP1 loss in mature astrocytes induced splicing alterations unlike neuronal splicing patterns. These findings suggest that targeting PTBP1 alone is ineffective to drive neuronal reprogramming and highlight the need for combining splicing and lineage analyses. Loss of astrocytic PTBP1 is insufficient to induce neuronal splicing, contrasting with its well-known role in other non-neuronal cells, and instead affects a distinct astrocytic splicing program.
通过耗尽PTBP1(一种神经元剪接的强效抑制因子)将星形胶质细胞重编程为神经元,已被提议作为一种治疗策略,但其疗效仍存在争议。虽然一些研究报告了成功的转化,但另一些研究对此提出质疑,认为缺乏神经元基因表达是重编程失败的证据。这种解释受到了进一步挑战,原因是PTBP1失活不完全,这加剧了持续的争议。对这种转化(或缺乏转化)的机制理解需要结合谱系追踪来研究成熟星形胶质细胞功能丧失对RNA剪接的影响,而这尚未得到研究。在这里,我们在成年Aldh1l1-Cre/ERT2 Ai14小鼠中通过基因敲除PTBP1,以确定谱系追踪的敲除星形胶质细胞是否表现出与神经元分化一致的RNA剪接改变。我们发现,尽管极小部分敲除细胞显示出类神经元转录组特征,但并没有广泛诱导神经元产生。重要的是,成熟星形胶质细胞中PTBP1的缺失诱导了与神经元剪接模式不同的剪接改变。这些发现表明,单独靶向PTBP1不足以驱动神经元重编程,并强调了结合剪接和谱系分析的必要性。星形胶质细胞PTBP1的缺失不足以诱导神经元剪接,这与其在其他非神经元细胞中的众所周知的作用形成对比,相反,它影响了一个独特的星形胶质细胞剪接程序。
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