Project description:Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive motor neuron disease and is the second most common genetic disorder leading to death in childhood. Motoneurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) obtained by reprogramming SMA patient and his healthy father fibroblasts, and genetically corrected SMA-iPSC obtained converting SMN2 into SMN1 with target gene correction (TGC), were used to study gene expression and splicing events linked to pathogenetic mechanisms. Microarray technology was used to assess the global gene expression profile as well as splicing events of iPS-derived motorneurons from SMA patient, unaffected father and TGC-treated cells. The microarray data derived from three different groups: SMA patient, healty father and treated SMA patient's cells. Each population consists of three RNA profiling cell samples.
Project description:<p>The NeuroLINCS Center is part of the NIH Common Fund's Library of Integrated Network-based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) program, which aims to characterize how a variety of human cells, tissues and the entire organism respond to perturbations by drugs and other molecular factors.</p> <p>As Part of the LINCS program, the NeuroLINCS study concentrates on human brain cells, which are far less understood than other cells in the body. Our initial focus is to produce diseased motor neurons from patients by utilizing high-quality induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) patients in addition to unaffected normal healthy controls. Using state-of-the-art OMICS methods (genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics), we intend to create a wealth of cellular data that is patient-specific in the context of their baseline genetic perturbations and in the presence of other genetic and environmental perturbagens (e.g. endoplasmic reticulum stress). The primary data will be used to build cell signatures that convey the key features that distinguish the state of a cell and determine its behavior. Ultimately, the analysis of these datasets will lead to the identification of a network of unique signatures relevant to each of these motor neuron diseases. The datasets represented in this study are generated from assays interrogating RNA expression (RNA-seq), chromatin accessibility (ATAC-seq) and whole genome sequencing. </p>
Project description:Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive motor neuron disease and is the second most common genetic disorder leading to death in childhood. Motoneurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) obtained by reprogramming SMA patient and his healthy father fibroblasts, and genetically corrected SMA-iPSC obtained converting SMN2 into SMN1 with target gene correction (TGC), were used to study gene expression and splicing events linked to pathogenetic mechanisms. Microarray technology was used to assess global gene expression profiles of iPSC from SMA patient, unaffected father and iPS 19.9 (Prof. J. Thomson's lab) compared to transcriptomic data obtained by corresponding fibroblasts.
Project description:Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive motor neuron disease and is the second most common genetic disorder leading to death in childhood. Motoneurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) obtained by reprogramming SMA patient and his healthy father fibroblasts, and genetically corrected SMA-iPSC obtained converting SMN2 into SMN1 with target gene correction (TGC), were used to study gene expression and splicing events linked to pathogenetic mechanisms. Microarray technology was used to assess the global gene expression profile as well as splicing events of iPS-derived motorneurons from SMA patient, unaffected father and TGC-treated cells.
Project description:Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive motor neuron disease and is the second most common genetic disorder leading to death in childhood. Motoneurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) obtained by reprogramming SMA patient and his healthy father fibroblasts, and genetically corrected SMA-iPSC obtained converting SMN2 into SMN1 with target gene correction (TGC), were used to study gene expression and splicing events linked to pathogenetic mechanisms. Microarray technology was used to assess global gene expression profiles of iPSC from SMA patient, unaffected father and iPS 19.9 (Prof. J. Thomson's lab) compared to transcriptomic data obtained by corresponding fibroblasts. The microarray data derived from three different individuals: SMA patient, healthy father and control iPS cells (19.9). We analyzed iPSC from SMA patient (n=2), iPS- from healthy father (n=1) and iPS-19.9 from Prof. Thomson's lab (n=3). The expression profile was compared to SMA patient's fibroblasts (n=2) and healthy father's fibroblasts (n=1)
Project description:Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is well-known to be caused by mutations in the gene Survival of Motor Neuron 1 (SMN1). Because this gene is ubiquitously expressed, it remains poorly understood why motor neurons (MNs) are one of the most affected cell types. To begin to address this question, we carried out RNA-sequencing studies using fixed, antibody-labeled and purified MNs produced from control and SMA patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). We found SMA-specific changes in MNs, including hyper-activation of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress pathway and enhanced apoptosis. Functional studies demonstrated that inhibition of ER stress improves overall MN health and survival in vitro even in MNs with low SMN levels. In SMA mice, we show that systemic delivery of an ER stress inhibitor that crosses the blood-brain-barrier led to preservation of MNs in the spinal cord and prolonged survival of these mice. Therefore, our study implies that selective activation of ER stress underlies MN death in SMA. Moreover, the approach we have taken would be broadly applicable to studying disease-prone human cells in heterogeneous cultures. total RNA collected from ES cell and patient ES cell derived spinal motor neurons
Project description:We describe a protocol for freezing neuronal cells that is compatible with ATAC-Seq, producing results that compare well with those generated from fresh cells. We developed our protocol on a disease-relevant cell type, namely motor neurons differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells from a patient affected by spinal muscular atrophy. We found that while flash-frozen motor neurons are not suitable for ATAC-Seq, the assay is successful with slow-cooled cryopreserved samples. Using this method, we were able to isolate high quality, intact nuclei, and we verified that epigenetic results from fresh and cryopreserved motor neurons agree quantitatively.
Project description:Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neuromuscular disorder caused by mutations of the survival of motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. In the pathogenesis of SMA, pathological changes of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) precede the motor neuronal loss. Therefore, it is critical to evaluate the NMJ formed by SMA patientsM-bM-^@M-^Y motor neurons (MNs), and to identify drugs that can restore the normal condition. We generated NMJ-like structures using motor neurons (MNs) derived from SMA patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and found that the clustering of the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) is significantly impaired. Valproic acid and antisense oligonucleotide treatment ameliorated the AChR clustering defects, leading to an increase in the level of full-length SMN transcripts. Thus, the current in vitro model of AChR clustering using SMA patient-derived iPSCs is useful to dissect the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the development of SMA, and to evaluate the efficacy of new therapeutic approaches.M-bM-^@M-^C To compare the gene expression pattern between control and patient derived iPSCs
Project description:Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neuromuscular disorder caused by mutations of the survival of motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. In the pathogenesis of SMA, pathological changes of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) precede the motor neuronal loss. Therefore, it is critical to evaluate the NMJ formed by SMA patientsM-bM-^@M-^Y motor neurons (MNs), and to identify drugs that can restore the normal condition. We generated NMJ-like structures using motor neurons (MNs) derived from SMA patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and found that the clustering of the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) is significantly impaired. Valproic acid and antisense oligonucleotide treatment ameliorated the AChR clustering defects, leading to an increase in the level of full-length SMN transcripts. Thus, the current in vitro model of AChR clustering using SMA patient-derived iPSCs is useful to dissect the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the development of SMA, and to evaluate the efficacy of new therapeutic approaches.M-bM-^@M-^C to evaluate the effects of VPA on the expression profiles of the MNs