ELP1 splicing correction reverses proprioceptive sensory loss in familial dysautonomia
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
PROVIDER: PRJNA521159 | ENA |
REPOSITORIES: ENA
Similar Datasets
Project description:Familial dysautonomia (FD) is a recessive neurodegenerative disease caused by a splice mutation in Elongator complex protein 1 (ELP1, also known as IKBKAP) which leads to variable skipping of exon 20 and to a drastic reduction of ELP1 levels in the nervous system. Clinically, many of the debilitating aspects of the disease are related to a progressive loss of proprioception, which leads to severe gait ataxia, spinal deformities and respiratory insufficiency due to neuromuscular incoordination. There is currently no effective treatment for FD and the disease is ultimately fatal. Development of a drug that targets the underlying molecular defect provides hope that the drastic peripheral neurodegeneration characteristic of FD can be halted. We demonstrate herein that the FD mouse, TgFD9; IkbkapΔ20/flox, recapitulates the proprioceptive impairment observed in individuals with FD, and we provide the in vivo evidence that postnatal correction of mutant ELP1 splicing promoted by the small molecule kinetin can rescue neurological phenotypes in FD. Daily administration of kinetin starting at birth improves sensory-motor coordination and prevents the onset of spinal abnormalities by stopping the loss of proprioceptive neurons. These phenotypic improvements correlate with increased levels of full length ELP1 mRNA and protein in multiple tissues including the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Our results show that postnatal correction of the underlying ELP1 splicing defect can rescue devastating disease phenotypes and is therefore a viable therapeutic approach for persons with FD.
2019-03-21 | GSE126155 | GEO
Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC6451698 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Familial Dysautonomia (FD) is a rare recessive neurodevelopmental disease caused by a splice site mutation in the Elongator acetyltransferase complex subunit 1 (ELP1) leading to tissue-specific skipping of exon 20 and reduction of the ELP1 protein, distinctly in the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS). Here we performed a transcriptome-wide study to dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying FD in specific neuronal tissues from the FD phenotypic mouse which expresses human ELP1, including the dorsal root ganglion (DRG), trigeminal ganglion (TG), medulla (MED), cortex, and spinal cord (SC). We focused our analyses on differentially expressed genes (DEGs) representing the most dominant transcriptomic alterations; and on genes in co-expression modules that are highly correlated with full-length ELP1 expression (ELP1 dose-responsive genes). We identified higher number of DEGs (342) in the PNS (DRG, TG) as compared to the CNS (MED, SC, Cortex) (143). ELP1 dose-responsive genes are only found in DRG, TG, and MED, not in Cortex or SC, tissues. Gene Ontology analyses of both DEGs and ELP1-dose-responsive genes highlight the regulation of neurotransmitters. The transcriptome-wide signals were highly convergent between PNS tissues (DRG and TG) but not among CNS tissues. Those convergent genes were enriched for known protein-protein interactions and cell type-specific markers defining myelinated neurons and peptidergic nociceptors. Our findings support the involvement of specific neuronal subtypes underlying the PNS phenotypes in FD. Our study comprehensively investigates transcriptome-wide alterations in FD neuronal tissues and identifies the functional dysregulations in the peripheral nervous system contributing to disease.
2023-09-28 | GSE230867 | GEO
Project description:Elongator is a highly conserved protein complex required for transcriptional elongation, intracellular transport and translation. Elongator complex protein 1 (ELP1) is the scaffolding protein of Elongator and is essential for its assembly and stability. Familial dysautonomia (FD), a hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy, is caused by a mutation in ELP1 that lead to a tissue-specific reduction of ELP1 protein. Our work to generate a phenotypic mouse model for FD led to the discovery that homozygous deletion of the mouse Elp1 gene leads to embryonic lethality prior to mid-gestation. Given that FD is caused by a reduction, not loss, of ELP1, we generated two new mouse models by introducing different copy numbers of the human FD ELP1 transgene into the Elp1 knockout mouse (Elp1-/-) and observed that human ELP1 expression rescues embryonic development in a dose dependent manner. We then conducted a comprehensive transcriptome analysis in mouse embryos to identify genes and pathways whose expression correlates with the amount of ELP1. We found that ELP1 is essential for the expression of genes responsible for the formation and development of the nervous system. Further, gene length analysis of the differentially expressed genes showed that the loss of Elp1 mainly impacts the expression of long genes and that by gradually restoring Elongator their expression is progressively rescued. Finally, through evaluation of co-expression modules, we identified gene sets with unique expression patterns that depended on ELP1 expression. Overall, this study highlights the crucial role of ELP1 during early embryonic neuronal development and reveals gene networks and biological pathways that are regulated by Elongator.
2021-10-25 | GSE186465 | GEO
Project description:Proprioceptive neurons (PNs) are essential for the proper execution of all our movements by providing muscle sensory feedback to the central motor network. Here, using deep single cell RNAseq of adult PNs coupled with advanced virus- and genetic tracings, we have molecularly identified the 3 main types of PNs (Ia, Ib and II) and unexpectedly found that they segregate into 8 subgroups. Our data further reveal a highly sophisticated organization of PNs into discrete sensory input channels with distinct spatial distribution, innervation patterns and molecular profiles, that together contribute to the sensory monitoring of complex motor behavior. Moreover, while Ib- and II-PN subtypes are specified around birth, Ia-PN subtypes diversify later along with increased motor activity and show versatility in the adult following exercise training, suggesting adaptive proprioceptive function.
2020-12-25 | GSE156180 | GEO
Project description:During development neurons achieve a high degree of specialization (Fishell and Heintz, 2013). Over time, while continuously recycling their components and despite transcriptional noise, their own respective properties remain intact. The transcription factors that play a large role in initially establishing neuronal identity can be required for maintaining it (Deneris and Hobert, 2014). Post-transcriptional regulation is also important to differentiation (Bian and Sun, 2011) but its role in maintaining cell identity is less established. To better understand how post-transcriptional regulation might contribute to cell identity, we examined the proprioceptive neurons in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG), a highly specialized sensory class, whose properties are well established and display clear differences when compared to other neurons in the ganglion. By conditionally ablating Dicer in mice, using a parvalbumin (Pvalb) driven cre, we impaired post-transcriptional regulation in the proprioceptive sensory neuron population. KO animals display a progressive form of ataxia at the beginning of the fourth postnatal week that is mirrored by a cell-death within the DRG. Before cell-loss, expression profiling shows a reduction of proprioceptor specific genes and an increased expression of non-proprioceptive genes normally enriched in other ganglion neurons. Furthermore, although central connections of these neurons are intact, the peripheral connections to the muscle are functionally impaired. Post-transcriptional regulation is therefore necessary to retain the transcriptional identity and support functional specialization of the proprioceptive sensory neurons.
2016-12-31 | GSE86019 | GEO
Project description:Proprioception relies on two main classes of proprioceptive sensory neurons (pSNs). These neurons innervate two distinct peripheral receptors in muscle, muscle spindles (MSs) or Golgi tendon organs (GTOs), and synapse onto different sets of spinal targets, but the molecular basis of their distinct pSN subtype identity remains unknown. We used microarray analysis to compare gene expression profiles between MS- and GTO- innervating proprioceptors.
2015-01-14 | GSE64941 | GEO
Project description:Familial dysautonomia (FD) is a rare genetic neurologic disorder caused by impaired neuronal development and progressive degeneration of both the peripheral and central nervous systems. FD is monogenic, with >99.4% of patients sharing an identical point mutation in the elongator acetyltransferase complex subunit 1 (ELP1) gene, providing a relatively simple genetic background in which to identify modifiable factors that influence pathology. Gastrointestinal symptoms and metabolic deficits are common among FD patients, which supports the hypothesis that the gut microbiome and metabolome are altered and dysfunctional compared to healthy individuals. Here we show significant differences in gut microbiome composition (16 S rRNA gene sequencing of stool samples) and NMR-based stool and serum metabolomes between a cohort of FD patients (~14% of patients worldwide) and their cohabitating, healthy relatives. We show that key observations in human subjects are recapitulated in a neuron-specific Elp1-deficient mouse model, and that cohousing mutant and littermate control mice ameliorates gut microbiome dysbiosis, improves deficits in gut transit, and reduces disease severity. Our results provide evidence that neurologic deficits in FD alter the structure and function of the gut microbiome, which shifts overall host metabolism to perpetuate further neurodegeneration.
2022-12-06 | MTBLS5138 | MetaboLights
Project description:Proprioception relies on two main classes of proprioceptive sensory neurons (pSNs). These neurons innervate two distinct peripheral receptors in muscle, muscle spindles (MSs) or Golgi tendon organs (GTOs), and synapse onto different sets of spinal targets, but the molecular basis of their distinct pSN subtype identity remains unknown. We used microarray analysis to compare gene expression profiles between MS- and GTO- innervating proprioceptors. We generated transgenic mice in which MS and GTO pSNs are labelled with different fluorescent proteins (see de Nooij et al., 2015 for details). We used Fluorescent Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) to isolate the MS and GTO pSN subsets from dissociated DRG from p7-10 transgenic mice. Neurons from multiple FACS experiments were pooled into three samples each for the MS and GTO pSN subset.
2015-01-14 | E-GEOD-64941 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:PNS injuries initiate transcriptional changes in glial cells and sensory neurons that promote axonal regeneration. While the factors that initiate the transcriptional changes in glial cells are well characterized, the full range of stimuli that initiate the response of sensory neurons remain elusive. Here, using a genetic model of glial cell ablation, we find that glial cell loss results in transient PNS demyelination without overt axonal loss. By profiling sensory ganglia at single-cell resolution we show that glial cell loss induces a transcriptional injury response preferentially in proprioceptive and Aβ RA-LTMR neurons. The transcriptional response of sensory neurons to mechanical injury has been assumed to be a cell autonomous response. By identifying a similar response in non-injured, demyelinated neurons, our study suggests that this represents a non-cell autonomous transcriptional response of sensory neurons to the loss of axon-glial cell interactions.
2022-06-11 | GSE205561 | GEO