Project description:To follow-up findings that miR-9 was abundantly expressed in control NPCs, significantly down-regulated in a subset of SZ NPCs, and that miR-9 levels/activity, neural migration and diagnosis were strongly correlated, we tested the effect of manipulating miR-9 at cellular, proteomic and transcriptomic levels. Unexpectedly, proteomic- and RNAseq-based analysis revealed that these effects were mediated primarily by small changes in expression of indirect miR-9 targets, rather than large changes in direct miR-9 targets; these indirect targets are enriched for migration-associated genes. Together these data indicate that aberrant levels and activity of miR-9 may be one of the many factors that contribute to SZ risk, at least in a subset of patients. Methods: We compared global transcription of forebrain NPCs from two control and two SZ patients with manipulated miR-9 levels by RNAseq. Results: Although RNAseq analysis revealed large inter-individual heterogeneity, we were able to resolve several functional consistencies in the effects of our miR-9 perturbations: i) the change in miR-9 activity was consistent with the inhibitory role of miR-9, ii) the gene expression fold-change of miR-9 target genes (between each perturbation and its corresponding control, summarized by the first principal component) was correlated (r=0.95, p=3.92e-04) with miR-9 fold change and iii) the differentially expressed (DE; p <0.01) gene list resulting from miR-9 perturbation (paired t-test) was enriched for miR-9 targets (1.53-fold, p=1.2e-5). Conclusions: We integrated the miR-9 perturbation RNAseq data with our existing RNAseq datasets contrasting control and SZ hiPSC NPC expression from our cohort 1 (six controls, four patients), to ask whether there was any relationship between the âSZ NPC signatureâ and âmiR-9 perturbationâ datasets; we observed that the DE (p-value <0.01) in âSZ NPC signatureâ is enriched for DE (fdr<0.01) in âmiR-9 perturbationâ (the overall enrichment is 2.31-fold (p=9.39e-09)); there is significant correlation between DE fold-change in these two datasets (overall genes r=0.188; p<10e-50). Effects were mediated primarily by small changes in expression of indirect miR-9 targets, rather than large changes in direct miR-9 targets; these indirect targets are enriched for migration-associated genes Biological duplicates of passage-matched NPCs from 1 control (female) and 1 SZ patient (female) were transduced with either RV-GFP or RV-miR-9-GFP; GFP-positive NPCs were purified by fluorescent activated cell sorting (FACS) and expanded for two passages. In parallel, passage-matched NPCs from 2 controls (1 male, 1 female) and 2 SZ patients (1 male, 1 female) were transiently transfected with either scrambled or miR-9 LNA probes. In both instances, miR-9 perturbation was confirmed by qPCR.
Project description:Cell-based models of many neurological and psychiatric diseases, established by reprogramming patient somatic cells into human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), have now been reported. While numerous reports have demonstrated that neuronal cells differentiated from hiPSCs are electrophysiologically active mature neurons, the âageâ of these cells relative to cells in the human brain remains unresolved. Comparisons of gene expression profiles of hiPSC-derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and neurons to the Allen BrainSpan Atlas indicate that hiPSC neural cells most resemble first trimester neural tissue. Consequently, we posit that hiPSC-derived neural cells may most accurately be used to model the early developmental defects that contribute to disease predisposition rather than the late features of the disease. Though the characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia SZ generally appear late in adolescence, it is now thought to be a neurodevelopmental condition, often predated by a prodromal period that can appear in early childhood. Postmortem studies of SZ brain tissue typically describe defects in mature neurons, such as reduced neuronal size and spine density in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, but abnormalities of neuronal organization, particularly in the cortex, have also been reported. We postulated that defects in cortical organization in SZ might result from abnormal migration of neural cells. To test this hypothesis, we directly reprogrammed fibroblasts from SZ patients into hiPSCs and subsequently differentiated these disorder-specific hiPSCs into NPCs. SZ hiPSC differentiated into forebrain NPCs have altered expression of a number of cellular adhesion genes and WNT signaling. Methods: We compared global transcription of forebrain NPCs from six control and four SZ patients by RNAseq. Results: Multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) resolved most SZ and control hiPSC NPC samples; 848 genes were significantly differentially expressed (FDR<0.01) Conclusions: The WNT signaling pathway was enriched 2-fold (fisher exact test p-value = 0.031). 1-2 independent differentiations (biological replicates) for each of four control and four schizophrenia patients were analyzed; samples were generated in parallel to neuron RNAseq data.
Project description:To follow-up findings that miR-9 was abundantly expressed in control NPCs, significantly down-regulated in a subset of SZ NPCs, and that miR-9 levels/activity, neural migration and diagnosis were strongly correlated, we tested the effect of manipulating miR-9 at cellular, proteomic and transcriptomic levels. Unexpectedly, proteomic- and RNAseq-based analysis revealed that these effects were mediated primarily by small changes in expression of indirect miR-9 targets, rather than large changes in direct miR-9 targets; these indirect targets are enriched for migration-associated genes. Together these data indicate that aberrant levels and activity of miR-9 may be one of the many factors that contribute to SZ risk, at least in a subset of patients. Methods: We compared global transcription of forebrain NPCs from two control and two SZ patients with manipulated miR-9 levels by RNAseq. Results: Although RNAseq analysis revealed large inter-individual heterogeneity, we were able to resolve several functional consistencies in the effects of our miR-9 perturbations: i) the change in miR-9 activity was consistent with the inhibitory role of miR-9, ii) the gene expression fold-change of miR-9 target genes (between each perturbation and its corresponding control, summarized by the first principal component) was correlated (r=0.95, p=3.92e-04) with miR-9 fold change and iii) the differentially expressed (DE; p <0.01) gene list resulting from miR-9 perturbation (paired t-test) was enriched for miR-9 targets (1.53-fold, p=1.2e-5). Conclusions: We integrated the miR-9 perturbation RNAseq data with our existing RNAseq datasets contrasting control and SZ hiPSC NPC expression from our cohort 1 (six controls, four patients), to ask whether there was any relationship between the “SZ NPC signature” and “miR-9 perturbation” datasets; we observed that the DE (p-value <0.01) in “SZ NPC signature” is enriched for DE (fdr<0.01) in “miR-9 perturbation” (the overall enrichment is 2.31-fold (p=9.39e-09)); there is significant correlation between DE fold-change in these two datasets (overall genes r=0.188; p<10e-50). Effects were mediated primarily by small changes in expression of indirect miR-9 targets, rather than large changes in direct miR-9 targets; these indirect targets are enriched for migration-associated genes
Project description:Cell-based models of many neurological and psychiatric diseases, established by reprogramming patient somatic cells into human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), have now been reported. While numerous reports have demonstrated that neuronal cells differentiated from hiPSCs are electrophysiologically active mature neurons, the “age” of these cells relative to cells in the human brain remains unresolved. Comparisons of gene expression profiles of hiPSC-derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and neurons to the Allen BrainSpan Atlas indicate that hiPSC neural cells most resemble first trimester neural tissue. Consequently, we posit that hiPSC-derived neural cells may most accurately be used to model the early developmental defects that contribute to disease predisposition rather than the late features of the disease. Though the characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia SZ generally appear late in adolescence, it is now thought to be a neurodevelopmental condition, often predated by a prodromal period that can appear in early childhood. Postmortem studies of SZ brain tissue typically describe defects in mature neurons, such as reduced neuronal size and spine density in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, but abnormalities of neuronal organization, particularly in the cortex, have also been reported. We postulated that defects in cortical organization in SZ might result from abnormal migration of neural cells. To test this hypothesis, we directly reprogrammed fibroblasts from SZ patients into hiPSCs and subsequently differentiated these disorder-specific hiPSCs into NPCs. SZ hiPSC differentiated into forebrain NPCs have altered expression of a number of cellular adhesion genes and WNT signaling. Methods: We compared global transcription of forebrain NPCs from six control and four SZ patients by RNAseq. Results: Multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) resolved most SZ and control hiPSC NPC samples; 848 genes were significantly differentially expressed (FDR<0.01) Conclusions: The WNT signaling pathway was enriched 2-fold (fisher exact test p-value = 0.031).
Project description:Cell-based models of many neurological and psychiatric diseases, established by reprogramming patient somatic cells into human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), have now been reported. While numerous reports have demonstrated that neuronal cells differentiated from hiPSCs are electrophysiologically active mature neurons, the “age” of these cells relative to cells in the human brain remains unresolved. Comparisons of gene expression profiles of hiPSC-derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and neurons to the Allen BrainSpan Atlas indicate that hiPSC neural cells most resemble first trimester neural tissue. Consequently, we posit that hiPSC-derived neural cells may most accurately be used to model the early developmental defects that contribute to disease predisposition rather than the late features of the disease. Though the characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia SZ generally appear late in adolescence, it is now thought to be a neurodevelopmental condition, often predated by a prodromal period that can appear in early childhood. Postmortem studies of SZ brain tissue typically describe defects in mature neurons, such as reduced neuronal size and spine density in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. We directly reprogrammed fibroblasts from SZ patients into hiPSCs and subsequently differentiated these disorder-specific hiPSCs into forebrain neurons. SZ hiPSC differentiated into forebrain neurons have altered expression of a number of synaptic genes. Methods: We compared global transcription of forebrain neurons from six control and four SZ patients by RNAseq. Results: Multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) resolved most SZ and control hiPSC neuron samples; 107 genes were significantly differentially expressed (FDR<0.01)
Project description:Whereas highly penetrant variants have proven well-suited to human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-based models, the power of hiPSC-based studies to resolve the much smaller effects of common variants within the size of cohorts that can be realistically assembled remains uncertain. In developing a large case/control schizophrenia (SZ) hiPSC-derived cohort of neural progenitor cells and neurons, we identified and accounted for a variety of technical and biological sources of variation. Reducing the stochastic effects of the differentiation process by correcting for cell type composition boosted the SZ signal in hiPSC-based models and increased the concordance with post mortem datasets. Because this concordance was strongest in hiPSC-neurons, it suggests that this cell type may better model genetic risk for SZ. We predict a growing convergence between hiPSC and post mortem studies as both approaches expand to larger cohort sizes. For studies of complex genetic disorders, to maximize the power of hiPSC cohorts currently feasible, in most cases and whenever possible, we recommend expanding the number of individuals even at the expense of the number of replicate hiPSC clones.
Project description:Ramulus Mori (Sangzhi) alkaloids (SZ-A) improves lipid metabolism and adipose tissue inflammation in HFD-induced obese mice.This study compares transcriptome profiling (RNA-seq) in the epididymal adipose tissue of normal chow, high-fat diet (HFD) control and SZ-A-treated HFD mice to verify the regulatory mechanisms of SZ-A. These results demonstrated that SZ-A regulates lipid metabolism and inflammation.
Project description:Ramulus Mori (Sangzhi) alkaloids (SZ-A) alleviates nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in mice. This study compares transcriptome profiling (RNA-seq) in the liver of normal chow, high-fat diet (HFD) control and SZ-A-treated HFD mice to verify the regulatory mechanisms of SZ-A. These results demonstrated that SZ-A regulates lipid metabolism and metabolic stress-induced inflammation and fibrosis.