Dataset Information

TSC patient-derived isogenic neural progenitor cells reveal altered early neurodevelopmental phenotypes and rapamycin-induced MNK-eIF4E signaling.

ABSTRACT: Background:Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with frequent occurrence of epilepsy, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability (ID), and tumors in multiple organs. The aberrant activation of mTORC1 in TSC has led to treatment with mTORC1 inhibitor rapamycin as a lifelong therapy for tumors, but TSC-associated neurocognitive manifestations remain unaffected by rapamycin. Methods:Here, we generated patient-specific, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from a TSC patient with a heterozygous, germline, nonsense mutation in exon 15 of TSC1 and established an isogenic set of heterozygous (Het), null and corrected wildtype (Corr-WT) iPSCs using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing. We differentiated these iPSCs into neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and examined neurodevelopmental phenotypes, signaling and changes in gene expression by RNA-seq. Results:Differentiated NPCs revealed enlarged cell size in TSC1-Het and Null NPCs, consistent with mTORC1 activation. TSC1-Het and Null NPCs also revealed enhanced proliferation and altered neurite outgrowth in a genotype-dependent manner, which was not reversed by rapamycin. Transcriptome analyses of TSC1-NPCs revealed differentially expressed genes that display a genotype-dependent linear response, i.e., genes upregulated/downregulated in Het were further increased/decreased in Null. In particular, genes linked to ASD, epilepsy, and ID were significantly upregulated or downregulated warranting further investigation. In TSC1-Het and Null NPCs, we also observed basal activation of ERK1/2, which was further activated upon rapamycin treatment. Rapamycin also increased MNK1/2-eIF4E signaling in TSC1-deficient NPCs. Conclusion:MEK-ERK and MNK-eIF4E pathways regulate protein translation, and our results suggest that aberrant translation distinct in TSC1/2-deficient NPCs could play a role in neurodevelopmental defects. Our data showing upregulation of these signaling pathways by rapamycin support a strategy to combine a MEK or a MNK inhibitor with rapamycin that may be superior for TSC-associated CNS defects. Importantly, our generation of isogenic sets of NPCs from TSC patients provides a valuable platform for translatome and large-scale drug screening studies. Overall, our studies further support the notion that early developmental events such as NPC proliferation and initial process formation, such as neurite number and length that occur prior to neuronal differentiation, represent primary events in neurogenesis critical to disease pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental disorders such as ASD.

SUBMITTER: Martin P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6945400 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

TSC patient-derived isogenic neural progenitor cells reveal altered early neurodevelopmental phenotypes and rapamycin-induced MNK-eIF4E signaling.

Martin Pauline P Wagh Vilas V Reis Surya A SA Erdin Serkan S Beauchamp Roberta L RL Shaikh Ghalib G Talkowski Michael M Thiele Elizabeth E Sheridan Steven D SD Haggarty Stephen J SJ Ramesh Vijaya V

Molecular autism 20200106 1

<h4>Background</h4>Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with frequent occurrence of epilepsy, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability (ID), and tumors in multiple organs. The aberrant activation of mTORC1 in TSC has led to treatment with mTORC1 inhibitor rapamycin as a lifelong therapy for tumors, but TSC-associated neurocognitive manifestations remain unaffected by rapamycin.<h4>Methods</h4>Here, we generated patient-specific, induced pluripotent ste ...[more]

PMID: 31921404

Similar Datasets

Project description:Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a model disorder for understanding brain development because the genes that cause TSC are known, many downstream molecular pathways have been identified, and the resulting perturbations of cellular events are established. TSC, therefore, provides an intellectual framework to understand the molecular and biochemical pathways that orchestrate normal brain development. The TSC1 and TSC2 genes encode Hamartin and Tuberin which form a GTPase activating protein (GAP) complex. Inactivating mutations in TSC genes (TSC1/TSC2) cause sustained Ras homologue enriched in brain (RHEB) activation of the mammalian isoform of the target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1). TOR is a protein kinase that regulates cell size in many organisms throughout nature. mTORC1 inhibits catabolic processes including autophagy and activates anabolic processes including mRNA translation. mTORC1 regulation is achieved through two main upstream mechanisms. The first mechanism is regulation by growth factor signaling. The second mechanism is regulation by amino acids. Gene mutations that cause too much or too little mTORC1 activity lead to a spectrum of neuroanatomical changes ranging from altered brain size (micro and macrocephaly) to cortical malformations to Type I neoplasias. Because somatic mutations often underlie these changes, the timing, and location of mutation results in focal brain malformations. These mutations, therefore, provide gain-of-function and loss-of-function changes that are a powerful tool to assess the events that have gone awry during development and to determine their functional physiological consequences. Knowledge about the TSC-mTORC1 pathway has allowed scientists to predict which upstream and downstream mutations should cause commensurate neuroanatomical changes. Indeed, many of these predictions have now been clinically validated. A description of clinical imaging and histochemical findings is provided in relation to laboratory models of TSC that will allow the reader to appreciate how human pathology can provide an understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of development.

Project description:Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is an inherited multi-system disorder caused by mutations in the TSC1 or TSC2 gene. TSC patients are often diagnosed with a range of neurodevelopmental (ND) manifestations termed TSC-associated neuropsychiatric disorders (TAND) including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability (ID), anxiety and mood disorders. Hamartin (TSC1) and tuberin (TSC2) proteins form a complex inhibiting mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) kinase signaling. Loss of TSC1 or TSC2 activates mTORC1 that, among several targets, controls protein synthesis by inhibiting translational repressor eIF4E-binding proteins. Using neural progenitor cells (NPCs) from patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), we recently reported early ND phenotypic changes, including increased cell proliferation and altered neurite outgrowth in CRISPR-modified TSC1-null NPCs, which were unaffected by mTORC1 inhibition by rapamycin,the only approved therapy for TSC1. Here, to assess TSC1-dependent gene expression programs in NPCs, we used polysome-profiling, which quantifies changes in mRNA abundance and translational efficiencies at a transcriptome-wide level. In addition to changes in mRNA abundance, this revealed numerous TSC1-dependent alterations in translational efficiencies. To assess the relevance of these gene expression alterations we performed polysome-profiling in post-mortem brains originating from ASD donors and matched controls. Strikingly, TSC1-dependent alterations in mRNA translation observed in NPCs were largely recapitulated in human brains. Furthermore, although polysome-profiling revealed a partial reversal of TSC1-associated gene expression alterations following rapamycin treatment, most genes related to neural activity/synaptic regulation or ASD that showed TSC1-dependent translation were rapamycin-insensitive. Therefore, we also examined whether early ND rapamycin-insensitive phenotypes in TSC1-null NPCs could be rescued by a third-generation bi-steric, mTORC1-selective inhibitor RMC-6272 (Revolution Medicines, Inc.). Unlike rapamycin, RMC-6272 strongly inhibited translation and reversed TSC1-associated proliferation and neurite outgrowth phenotypes. In summary, we reveal ample translational alterations in TSC1 patient-derived NPCs recapitulating human brain expression profiles and potential implications for treatment of TAND.

Dataset Information

TSC patient-derived isogenic neural progenitor cells reveal altered early neurodevelopmental phenotypes and rapamycin-induced MNK-eIF4E signaling.

Publications

TSC patient-derived isogenic neural progenitor cells reveal altered early neurodevelopmental phenotypes and rapamycin-induced MNK-eIF4E signaling.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure