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Modeling psychiatric disorders at the cellular and network levels.

ABSTRACT: Although psychiatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder affect a number of brain regions and produce a complex array of clinical symptoms, basic phenotypes likely exist at the level of single neurons and simple networks. Being highly heritable, it is hypothesized that these disorders are amenable to cell-based studies in vitro. Using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons and/or induced neurons from fibroblasts, limitless numbers of live human neurons can now be generated from patients with a genetic background permissive to the disease state. We predict that cell-based studies will ultimately contribute to our understanding of the initiation, progression and treatment of these psychiatric disorders.

SUBMITTER: Brennand KJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3465628 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Modeling psychiatric disorders at the cellular and network levels.

Brennand K J KJ Simone A A Tran N N Gage F H FH

Molecular psychiatry 20120403 12

Although psychiatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder affect a number of brain regions and produce a complex array of clinical symptoms, basic phenotypes likely exist at the level of single neurons and simple networks. Being highly heritable, it is hypothesized that these disorders are amenable to cell-based studies in vitro. Using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons and/or induced neurons from fibroblasts, limitless numbers of live human ...[more]

PMID: 22472874

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Project description:Dysregulated neurite outgrowth and synapse formation underlie many psychiatric disorders. Wolfram syndrome (WS) mainly caused by WFS1 deficiency is a monogenic genetic disease manifested by severe psychiatric disorders. Due to athe lack of proper human disease models, the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. Particularly, whether and how WFS1 deficiency affects synapse formation remain elusive. By mirroring the complexity of human brain development with cerebral organoids derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) harboring WFS1 loss of function (LOF), we found that WFS1-deficient cerebral organoids not only recapitulated the neuronal loss phenotype in WS patients, but also exhibited significantly impaired synapse formation associated with reduced astrocytes, suggesting a defective structural basis for psychiatric disorders elicited by WFS1 deficiency. To further unravel the complexity of interplay between neurons and astrocytes, each neural cell type was respectively differentiated from hESCs harboring WFS1 LOF. WFS1 deficiency in neurons autonomously delayed neuronal differentiation with altered expressions of genes associated with psychiatric disorders, and impaired neurite outgrowth and reduced synapse formation associated with elevated cytosolic calcium. Interestingly, WFS1 deficiency in astrocytes decreased the expression of glutamate transporter EAAT2 and compromised glutamate uptake, causing reduced neurite outgrowth with increased cytosolic calcium when co-cultured with wildtype (WT) neurons, highlighting pathogenic role of WFS1-deficient astrocytes. Importantly, restoring EAAT2 expression in astrocytes by riluzole treatment significantly alleviated reduced neurite outgrowth phenotype in WT neurons co-cultured with WFS1-deficient astrocytes. Altogether, our study provides novel insights into how WFS1 deficiency affects neurite outgrowth and synapse formation, potentially contributing to predisposition of psychiatric disorders, and offers a potential strategy of therapy.

Dataset Information

Modeling psychiatric disorders at the cellular and network levels.

Publications

Modeling psychiatric disorders at the cellular and network levels.

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