Neuroinflammation and immunothrombosis transcriptional patterns in CCM lesions revealed by spatial transcriptomics
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ABSTRACT: Cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM) immunothrombosis is the connection between immune cells, platelet activation, coagulation cascades and astrocyte-CCM endothelium interaction, and its excessive activation may contribute to neurological disabilities in CCM disease. We characterized the spatial organization of CCM immunothrombosis observed in Pdcd10BECKObrains under normoxic conditions using the murine 10X Genomics Visium Spatial Gene Expression platform.
Project description:The CCM endothelium is hypersensitive to angiogenesis and can induce a hypoxic program associated with changes in angiogenesis, inflammation, and endothelial-cell metabolism under normoxic conditions. However, the role of active drivers of angiogenesis as CCM disease modifiers in human disease remains unclear. To examine if hypoxia, a driver of angiogenesis, may contribute to CCM exacerbation, we performed bulk RNA-seq of brain tissue from P50 Pdcd10BECKO mice under normoxia and hypoxia. P50 Pdcd10fl/fl littermate controls under normoxia and hypoxia were used as controls.
Project description:Cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM) is a rare neurovascular disease that is characterized by enlarged and irregular blood vessels that often lead to cerebral hemorrhage. Loss-of-function mutations to any of three genes results in CCM lesion formation; namely, CCM1, CCM2, and CCM3. Here, we report for the first time in-depth single-cell RNA sequencing, combined with spatial transcriptomics and immunohistochemistry, to comprehensively characterize subclasses of brain endothelial cells under both normal conditions and after deletion of Ccm3 in a mouse model of CCM. Integrated single-cell analysis identifies arterial endothelial cells as refractory to CCM transformation. Conversely, a subset of angiogenic venous capillary endothelial cells and respective resident endothelial progenitors is at the origin of CCM lesions. These data are relevant for the understanding of the plasticity of the brain vascular system and provide novel insights into the molecular basis of CCM disease at the single cell level.
Project description:The CCM endothelium is hypersensitive to angiogenesis and can induce a hypoxic program associated with changes in angiogenesis, inflammation, and endothelial-cell metabolism under normoxic conditions. However, the role of active drivers of angiogenesis as CCM disease modifiers in human disease remains unclear. To assess whether CCM reactive astrocytes with neuroinflammatory capacity respond to hypoxia-induced CCM exacerbation, we employed the astrocyte-specific (Aldh1l1-EGFP/Rpl10a) Translational Ribosome Affinity Purification (TRAP) system in combination with a CCM mouse model (Pdcd10BECKO;Aldh1l1-EGFP/Rpl10a). TRAP protocol was performed using Slco1c1-iCreERT2;Pdcd10fl/fl;Aldh1l1-EGFP/Rpl10a mice to isolate ribosomes from astrocytes as previously described. Astrocyte-TRAP mRNAs were from cerebral tissue of mice age P50 exposed to hypoxia or normoxia conditions.
Project description:Cerebral Cavernous Malformation (CCM) is a brain vascular disease with various neurological symptoms. In this study, we describe the inflammatory profile in CCM and show for the first time the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in rodents and humans with CCM. Through RNA-seq analysis of cerebellum endothelial cells from wild-type mice and mice with anendothelial cell-specific ablation of the Ccm3 gene (Ccm3iECKO), we show that endothelial cells from Ccm3iECKO mice have anincreased expression of inflammation-related genes.
Project description:Cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM) is caused by loss-of-function mutations in CCM1, CCM2, or CCM3 genes of endothelial cells. It is characterized by pericyte deficiency. However, the role of pericytes in CCMs remains poorly understood. Our study showed that pericytes in Cdh5CreERT2; Ccm1fl/fl (Ccm1ECKO) mice were high expression of PDGFRβ. The inhibition of pericyte function by CP-673451 aggravated the CCM lesion development. RNA-seq analysis revealed the molecular traits of pericytes, such as highly expressed ECM-related genes, especially Fn1. Furthermore, KLF4 coupled with phosphorylated SMAD3 promoted the transcription of fibronectin in pericytes of CCM lesions. RGDS peptide, an inhibitor of fibronectin, decreased the lesion area in the cerebella and retinas of Ccm1ECKO mice. Also, human CCM lesions had abundant fibronectin deposition, and pSMAD3- and KLF4-positive pericytes. The current data demonstrated that pericytes are essential for CCM lesion development, and fibronectin intervention may provide a novel target for therapeutic intervention in such patients.
Project description:Cerebral Cavernous Malformation (CCM) is a neurovascular disease distinguished by clusters of leaky, mulberry-like blood vessels. KRIT1 biallelic loss-of-function mutations in endothelial cells are known to trigger brain cavernomas, however, human pre-clinical models are needed to unveil the importance of germline KRIT1 heterozygous mutations in CCM pathogenesis. We generated three iPSCs from CCM patients with hereditary KRIT1 heterozygous mutations. Patient-derived vascularized organoids exhibited intricate and abnormal vascular structures with cavernoma-like morphology, and iPSCs-derived endothelial cells displayed phenotypic abnormalities at the junctional and transcriptional level. Upon injection into brain explants, CCM-endothelial cells integrated into the normal vasculature and created vascular anomalies. Lastly, transcriptional analysis showed that the endothelial progenitor marker PEG3 was highly expressed in iPSCs-derived CCM endothelial cells and further confirmed in familial and sporadic cavernoma biopsies. Overall, our study enlightens the molecular consequence of KRIT1 heterozygous mutations in endothelial cells and the potential implications in cavernoma pathogenesis.
Project description:Cerebral cavernous malformations are vascular anomalies that can cause hemorrhagic stroke. Mutations in genes encoding Krit 1 (CCM1), OSM (CCM2), and PDCD10 (CCM3) proteins cause CCM. A loss in teh expression of any of these CCM proteins disrupts normal cerebral vessel development by disrupting the cytoskeleton and thereby inhibits endothelial tube ofrmation. Examination of cellular changes based on the loss of CCM gene expression may lead to the methods for early detection and prevention of CCM associated hemorrhagic stroke.
Project description:Patients with familial cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM) inherit germline loss of function mutations and are susceptible to progressive development of brain lesions and neurological sequelae during their lifetime. To date, no homologous circulat- ing molecules have been identified that can reflect the presence of germ line pathogenetic CCM mutations, either in animal models or patients. We hypothesize that homologous differentially expressed (DE) plasma miRNAs can reflect the CCM germline mutation in preclinical murine models and patients. Herein, homologous DE plasma miRNAs with mechanistic putative gene targets within the transcriptome of preclinical and human CCM lesions were identified. Several of these gene targets were additionally found to be associated with CCM-enriched pathways identified using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes. DE miRNAs were also identified in familial-CCM patients who developed new brain lesions within the year following blood sample collection. The miRNome results were then validated in an independent cohort of human subjects with real-time-qPCR quantification, a technique facilitating plasma assays. Finally, a Bayesian-informed machine learning approach showed that a combination of plasma levels of miRNAs and circulating proteins improves the associa- tion with familial-CCM disease in human subjects to 95% accuracy. These findings act as an important proof of concept for the future development of translatable circulating biomarkers to be tested in preclinical studies and human trials aimed at monitoring and restoring gene function in CCM and other diseases.