Project description:While psychiatric disorders (e.g., schizophrenia) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are typically associated with a deficit in social behavior, the opposite trait of hypersociability is exhibited by individuals with specific neurodevelopmental disorders, e.g., Angelman Syndrome (AS) and Williams-Beuren Syndrome (WBS). We have recently reported that the deletion of the miR379-410 cluster in mice led to hypersocial behavior. To study the roles of this miRNA cluster in the context of WBS, we sent for smallRNA sequencing RNA isolated from isogenic human iPSC-derived neurons harboring a deletion present in Williams-Beuren-Syndrome patients (7q11.23). Specifically, we found that members of the miR379-410 cluster were strikingly overrepresented among downregulated miRNAs in iNeurons harboring a deletion of the WBS critical region. Thus, we obtained the first evidence for the pathophysiological significance of the miR379-410 miRNA cluster in the context of WBS. We conclude that targeting this novel pathway could have therapeutic potential for WBS and other neurodevelopmental conditions characterized by social impairments.
Project description:We have performed comparative transcriptome profile from lymphoblastoid cell lines from four Williams-Beuren syndrome patients and two patients with partial deletions of the region. The goal was to find deregulated genes specifically in WBS versus atypical deletions, and to determine the biological pathways affected in WBS patients.
Project description:We report 12 individuals from ten unrelated families with epilepsy, learning difficulties, intellectual disability, and neurobehavioral abnormalities, who segregated a microdeletion distally adjacent to the Williams-Beuren syndrome region. In six families, a recurrent ~ 1.1 Mb deletion likely resulted from nonallelic homologous recombination between flanking large complex low-copy repeats. Three smaller sized microdeletions (~ 180-500 kb) enabled us to narrow the critical region to one gene, HIP1, encoding Huntington interacting protein 1.
Project description:Merm1/Wbscr22 is one of genes in chromosomal region deleted in Williams-Beuren syndrome, a multisystem developmental disorder. Wbscr22 contains a nuclear localization signal and an S-adenosyl-L-methionine-dependent methyltransferase fold, but its real function is completely unknown. In this study, to examine the function, we compared the gene expression profiles between control and Merm1/Wbscr22 knock-downed tumor cells.
Project description:Analyses were performed on stool samples collected from 41 patients affected by Williams Beuren syndrome (Wills, WBSs) to evaluate their gut microbiota metaproteome signatures by LFQ and LCA approaches in comparison to 45 healthy subjects (controls, CTRs, CTRLs)
Project description:Copy number variations at 7q11.23 cause neurodevelopmental disorders with shared and opposite manifestations. Deletion leads to Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS), while duplication causes 7q11.23 microduplication syndrome (7Dup). Converging evidence indicates GTF2I, from the 7q11.23 locus, is a key mediator of the cognitive-behavioral phenotypes associated with WBS and 7Dup. Here we integrate molecular profiling of patient-derived cortical organoids (COs) and transgenic mouse models to dissect 7q11.23 disease mechanisms. Proteomic and transcriptomic profiling of COs revealed opposite dynamics of neural progenitor proliferation and transcriptional imbalances, leading to precocious excitatory neuron production in 7Dup. The accelerated excitatory neuron production in 7Dup COs could be rescued by GTF2I knockdown. Transgenic mice with Gtf2i duplication recapitulated early neuronal differentiation defects and ASD-like behaviors. Remarkably, inhibition of LSD1, a downstream effector of GTF2I, was sufficient to rescue ASD-like phenotypes. We propose that the GTF2I-LSD1 axis constitutes a molecular pathway amenable to therapeutic intervention.
Project description:Williams-Beuren Syndrome (WBS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by aa 1.5 Mb microdeletion on human chromosome 7. Although the molecular cause of the disorder is well-established, little is known about the global impact of the deletion on gene expression. Here we profiled the transcriptomes of fibroblast cell lines from 8 young girls with WBS, and 9 sex- and age-matched control individuals Keywords: disease state analysis, gene expression profiling
Project description:Copy number variants (CNVs) influence the expression of genes that map not only within the rearrangement, but also to its flanks. To assess the possible mechanism(s) underlying this “neighboring effect”, we compared intrachromosomal interactions and histone modifications in cell lines of patients affected by genomic disorders and control individuals. Using chromosome conformation capture (4C-seq), we observed that a set of genes flanking the Williams-Beuren Syndrome critical region (WBSCR) were often looping together, possibly forming an interacting cluster with each other and the WBSCR. Deletion of the WBSCR disrupts the expression of this group of flanking genes, as well as long-range interactions between them and the rearranged interval. We also pinpointed concomitant changes in histone modifications between samples.We conclude that large genomic rearrangements can lead to chromatin conformation changes that extend far away from the structural variant, thereby possibly modulating expression globally and modifying the phenotype. For example, we determined that the chromatin conformation, histone marks and relative expression levels of the flanking AUTS2 gene, mutations of which are associated with autism and intellectual disabilities, are modified in cell lines from Williams-Beuren syndrome patients. Examination of 4C-seq interaction profile of seven different genes (of which three in duplicate) in 2 different cell lines.
