Dataset Information

GENETIC CORRECTION OF HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE PHENOTYPES IN INDUCED PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS

ABSTRACT: 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.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE37547 | GEO | 2012/06/15

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA161539

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Huntingtonâs disease (HD) is a devastating disease for which currently no therapy is available. It is a progressive autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder that is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the HD gene, resulting in an expansion of polyglutamines at the N-terminal end of the encoded protein, designated huntingtin, and the accumulation of cytoplasmic and nuclear aggregates. Not only is there a loss of normal huntingtin function, upon expansion of the CAG repeat there is also a gain of toxic function of the huntingtin protein and this affects a wide range of cellular processes. To identify groups of genes that could play a role in the pathology of Huntingtonâs disease, we studied mRNA changes in an inducible PC12 model of Huntingtonâs disease before and after aggregates became visible. This is the first study to show the involvement Nrf2-responsive genes in the oxidative stress response in HD. Oxidative stress related transcripts were altered in expression suggesting a protective response in cells expressing mutant huntingtin at an early stage of cellular pathology. Furthermore, there was a down-regulation of catecholamine biosynthesis resulting in lower dopamine levels in culture. Our results further demonstrate an early impairment of transcription, the cytoskeleton, ion channels and receptors. Given the pathogenic impact of oxidative stress and neuroinflammation, the Nrf2-ARE signaling pathway is an attractive therapeutic target for neurodegenerative diseases. Keywords: Gene expression analysis, Huntington's disease, oxidative stress, PC12 cell model For each construct, we performed duplicate experiments with 2 independent cell lines for each construct yielding 2 biological replicates. Furthermore, from each cell line, two separate RNA isolations were performed serving as technical replicates. For PC12 cells with no construct, only a technical replicate was used. RNA was harvested prior to induction (day 0), after 24 hours of induction (day 1) and after 5 days of induction of exon 1 huntingtin fragments with normal (Q23) and extended (Q74) glutamine repeat length.

Project description:In Huntington’s disease (HD), expanded HTT CAG repeat length correlates strongly with age at motor onset, indicating that it determines the rate of the disease process leading to diagnostic clinical manifestations. Similarly, in normal individuals, HTT CAG repeat length is correlated with biochemical differences that reveal it as a functional polymorphism. Here, we tested the hypothesis that gene expression signatures can capture continuous, length-dependent effects of the HTT CAG repeat. Using gene expression datasets for 107 HD and control lymphoblastoid cell lines, we constructed mathematical models in an iterative manner, based upon CAG correlated gene expression patterns in randomly chosen training samples, and tested their predictive power in test samples. Predicted CAG repeat lengths were significantly correlated with experimentally determined CAG repeat lengths, whereas models based upon randomly permuted CAGs were not at all predictive. Predictions from different batches of mRNA for the same cell lines were significantly correlated, implying that CAG length-correlated gene expression is reproducible. Notably, HTT expression was not itself correlated with HTT CAG repeat length. Taken together, these findings confirm the concept of a gene expression signature representing the continuous effect of HTT CAG length and not primarily dependent on the level of huntingtin expression. Such global and unbiased approaches, applied to additional cell types and tissues, may facilitate the discovery of therapies for HD by providing a comprehensive view of molecular changes triggered by HTT CAG repeat length for use in screening for and testing compounds that reverse effects of the HTT CAG expansion. To evaluate the continuous analytical approach as a strategy to discover the molecular consequences of the HTT CAG repeat, genome-wide gene expression datasets were generated from a panel of 107 human lymphoblastoid cell lines with HTT CAGs spanning the entire spectrum of allele sizes.

Dataset Information

GENETIC CORRECTION OF HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE PHENOTYPES IN INDUCED PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS

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