학술논문

Developmental alterations in Huntington's disease neural cells and pharmacological rescue in cells and mice
Document Type
article
Source
Nature Neuroscience. 20(5)
Subject
Biomedical and Clinical Sciences
Neurosciences
Rare Diseases
Regenerative Medicine
Brain Disorders
Neurodegenerative
Stem Cell Research - Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell - Human
Huntington's Disease
Stem Cell Research - Nonembryonic - Human
Stem Cell Research
Stem Cell Research - Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell
Aetiology
2.1 Biological and endogenous factors
Neurological
Animals
Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors
Cells
Cultured
Cognitive Dysfunction
Corpus Striatum
Epigenomics
Gene Expression
Gene Expression Profiling
Gene Knockdown Techniques
Histones
Humans
Huntingtin Protein
Huntington Disease
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Isoxazoles
Mice
Mice
Transgenic
Nerve Tissue Proteins
Neurogenesis
Neurons
Peptides
Signal Transduction
Thiophenes
HD iPSC Consortium
Psychology
Cognitive Sciences
Neurology & Neurosurgery
Biological psychology
Language
Abstract
Neural cultures derived from Huntington's disease (HD) patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells were used for 'omics' analyses to identify mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration. RNA-seq analysis identified genes in glutamate and GABA signaling, axonal guidance and calcium influx whose expression was decreased in HD cultures. One-third of gene changes were in pathways regulating neuronal development and maturation. When mapped to stages of mouse striatal development, the profiles aligned with earlier embryonic stages of neuronal differentiation. We observed a strong correlation between HD-related histone marks, gene expression and unique peak profiles associated with dysregulated genes, suggesting a coordinated epigenetic program. Treatment with isoxazole-9, which targets key dysregulated pathways, led to amelioration of expanded polyglutamine repeat-associated phenotypes in neural cells and of cognitive impairment and synaptic pathology in HD model R6/2 mice. These data suggest that mutant huntingtin impairs neurodevelopmental pathways that could disrupt synaptic homeostasis and increase vulnerability to the pathologic consequence of expanded polyglutamine repeats over time.