Project description:Huntington's Disease (HD) is caused by a CAG expansion in the huntingtin gene. Expansion of the polyglutamine tract in the huntingtin protein results in massive cell death in the striatum of HD patients. We report that human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from HD patient fibroblasts can be corrected by replacing the expanded CAG repeat with a normal repeat using homologous recombination, and that the correction persists in iPSC differentiation into DARPP-32 positive neurons in vitro and vivo. Further, correction of the HD-iPSCs normalized pathogenic HD signaling pathways (cadherin, TGF-?, BNDF, caspase activation), and reversed disease phenotypes such as susceptibility to cell death and altered mitochondrial bioenergetics in neural stem cells. The ability to make patient-specific, genetically corrected iPSCs from HD patients will provide relevant disease models in identical genetic backgrounds and is a critical step for the eventual use of these cells in cell replacement therapy. 16 experimental samples were used overall. There were 8 replicates per group, with one group being the control, and the other being the experimental. Comparison was carried out on the Nimblegen platform.
Project description:Huntington's Disease (HD) is caused by a CAG expansion in the huntingtin gene. Expansion of the polyglutamine tract in the huntingtin protein results in massive cell death in the striatum of HD patients. We report that human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from HD patient fibroblasts can be corrected by replacing the expanded CAG repeat with a normal repeat using homologous recombination, and that the correction persists in iPSC differentiation into DARPP-32 positive neurons in vitro and vivo. Further, correction of the HD-iPSCs normalized pathogenic HD signaling pathways (cadherin, TGF-β, BNDF, caspase activation), and reversed disease phenotypes such as susceptibility to cell death and altered mitochondrial bioenergetics in neural stem cells. The ability to make patient-specific, genetically corrected iPSCs from HD patients will provide relevant disease models in identical genetic backgrounds and is a critical step for the eventual use of these cells in cell replacement therapy.
Project description:Huntington's disease is caused by an expanded CAG repeat in the huntingtin gene, yeilding a Huntingtin protein with an expanded polyglutamine tract. Patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can help understand disease; however, defining pathological biomarkers in challanging. Here we used LC-MS/MS to determine differences in mitochondrial proteome between iPSC-derived neurons from healthy donors and Huntington's disease patients.
Project description:Identification of transcriptional changes in Huntington's disease (HD) and normal (WT) human embryonic stem cells (hESC)- and induced pluripotent stem cells(iPSC)-derived striatal GABAergic neruons.
Project description:Single cell RNA-seq and bulk RNA-seq characterization of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSCs) derived Huntington's disease organoids resembling the human striatum
Project description:Mutations in the acid β-glucocerebrosidase (GBA1) gene, responsible for the lysosomal storage disorder Gaucher’s disease (GD), are the strongest genetic risk factor for Parkinson’s disease (PD) known to date. To elucidate the mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in these patients, we generated induced pluripotent stem cells from subjects with GD and PD harboring GBA1 mutations and differentiated them to midbrain dopaminergic neurons. Highly enriched neurons showed a reduction of glucocerebrosidase activity and protein levels, increased glucosylceramide and α-synuclein levels and autophagic/lysosomal defects. Quantitative proteomics profiling revealed an increase of the neuronal calcium-binding protein 2 (NECAB2) in diseased neurons. We found dysregulation of calcium homeostasis and increased vulnerability to stress responses involving elevation of cytosolic calcium in mutant neurons. Importantly, correction of the mutations rescued such pathological phenotypes. Our findings provide evidence for a link between GBA1 mutations and complex changes in autophagic/lysosomal system and intracellular calcium homeostasis, which underlie vulnerability to neurodegeneration.
