Project description:Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a multifactorial and complex fatal degenerative disorder. A number of pathological mechanisms that lead to motor neuron death have been identified, although there are many unknowns in the disease aetiology of ALS. Alterations in lipid metabolism are well documented in the progression of ALS, both at the systemic level and in the spinal cord of mouse models and ALS patients. The origin of these lipid alterations remains unclear. This study aims to identify early lipid metabolic pathways altered before systemic metabolic symptoms in the spinal cord of mouse models of ALS. To do this, we performed a transcriptomic analysis of the spinal cord of SOD1G93A mice at an early disease stage(p90)
Project description:mRNA expression in the spinal cords of the G93A-SOD1 familial ALS transgenic mouse model was compared to that in nontransgenic (Normal mouse) and transgenic mice expressing wild-type (WT)SOD1. Gene Ontology (GO)analysis was used to characterize differences in expression between G93A-SOD1 mouse and nontransgenic mouse spinal cord. Changes in multiple GO categories were found. Many of these were associated with subsystems involving cell-cell communication and intracellular signal transduction. Expression profiles of mice expressing WT-SOD1 did not differ from nontransgenic mice. In contrast, protein profiling using proteomics technology indicated changes in mitochondrial protein expression in the G93A-SOD1 mouse spinal cord that were not found in the mRNA expression analysis. Keywords: Disease state analysis, time course, transgenic mice
Project description:To investigate the usefulness of gene expression as diagnostic biomarkers, we compared whole genome expression profiles of lumbar spinal cord with profiles of peripheral blood and tibialis anterior muscle in 16 mutant G93A-SOD1 mice and 15 wild type littermates. Total RNA obtained from blood, tibialis anterior muscle and lumbar spinal cord of G93A-SOD1 mice compared to wild type littermates.
Project description:We report transcriptomic dysregulations in the spinal cord of symptomatic SOD1 G86R mice by RNA sequencing. We found that genes related to immune system, lysosom, and sphingolipids had altered level of expression. These results were used to perform an integrated joint analysis with data from a metabolomic study.
Project description:To investigate the usefulness of gene expression as diagnostic biomarkers, we compared whole genome expression profiles of lumbar spinal cord with profiles of peripheral blood and tibialis anterior muscle in 16 mutant G93A-SOD1 mice and 15 wild type littermates.
Project description:We have investigated the process of disease-induced functional perturbation and the related transcriptional changes occurring in thoraco-lumbar spinal cord extracted from Sprague-Dawley rats heterozygous for the G93A SOD1 gene mutation (Emerging Model 2148 Het Male, Taconic USA; Wyeth and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association 2002) using spinal cord from wild type females littermates as reference tissues. Rats were obtained from a breeding project at Taconic Breeding Services (USA). We have applied large-scale gene expression analysis to define the pattern or transcriptional changes occurring in spinal cord from the G93A SOD1 rat model from a pre-symptomatic stage, at disease onset and at end-stage disease, using Bead Array analysis (Illumina, San Diego, USA). We have pooled spinal cord from N:5 transgenic rats for each of the time points considered, using the same pools of spinal cord from sex and age-matched WT rats as reference. In this specific project, the aim was to obtain a gene ontology (GO) pathway analysis of the transcriptional changes induced by the G93A SOD1 mutation in rat spinal cord. Hence, we have opted for a sample pooling strategy, well aware that in so doing, we would not obtaineed information about individuals genes variation across the samples in study but an overall view of the activation of multi-genes molecular signals. Total RNA was isolated from the spinal cords of mutant (G93A SOD1 gene mutation) female rats sacrificed at a pre-symptomatic stage (10-week old), at disease onset and at end stage disease and from age and sex-matched wild type (WT) littermates. RNA samples obtained from spinal cord extracted from rats of the same genetic types and sacrificed at the same time points (e.g. 5 RNA samples from mutant spinal cord from end-stage rats; 5 RNA samples from mutant spinal cord from rats at disease onset; 5 RNA samples from mutant pre-symptomatic rats and 5 RNA samples from spinal cord obtained from age-matched WT rats sacrificed at each of the 3 time points) were pooled and used for gene expression analysis and Ontology analysis of the expression profiles.
Project description:We have investigated the process of disease-induced functional perturbation and the related transcriptional changes occurring in thoraco-lumbar spinal cord extracted from Sprague-Dawley rats heterozygous for the G93A SOD1 gene mutation (Emerging Model 2148 Het Male, Taconic USA; Wyeth and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association 2002) using spinal cord from wild type females littermates as reference tissues. Rats were obtained from a breeding project at Taconic Breeding Services (USA). We have applied large-scale gene expression analysis to define the pattern or transcriptional changes occurring in spinal cord from the G93A SOD1 rat model from a pre-symptomatic stage, at disease onset and at end-stage disease, using Bead Array analysis (Illumina, San Diego, USA). We have pooled spinal cord from N:5 transgenic rats for each of the time points considered, using the same pools of spinal cord from sex and age-matched WT rats as reference. In this specific project, the aim was to obtain a gene ontology (GO) pathway analysis of the transcriptional changes induced by the G93A SOD1 mutation in rat spinal cord. Hence, we have opted for a sample pooling strategy, well aware that in so doing, we would not obtaineed information about individuals genes variation across the samples in study but an overall view of the activation of multi-genes molecular signals.
Project description:In our original grant we proposed to use the NR3B-null mouse model to study the role of NR3B subunit in motor neuron function. We have now successfully generated NR3B null mice. Interestingly, NR3B-null mice invariably die at age P4-P8. Our preliminary examination indicates that the motor strength of these mice is severely impaired prior to death. As we continue to explore the cause of death in NR3B null mice, we propose to conduct gene profiling experiments to search for transcription changes in the brain related to ablation of the NR3B gene. We have used the facility provided by the NINDS/NIMH Microarray Consortium to identify genes that show abnormal expression patterns in these mice. We would like to compare these changes with that opccured in SOD1 mice, a mouse model of motor neuron diseases. Analysis of these genes will help to identify changes in networks and pathways that may cause the death of NR3B-null mice. These studies will further help to elucidate the functional role of NR3B in motor neurons. We will compare samples from motor neurons of wild type and SOD1 mice to identify genes that show abnormal expression patterns, which may be implicated in the death of SOD1 mice and shared with the same changes in NR3B-null mice. We hypothesize that genes with their transcription level changing significantly by ablation of NR3B will be associated with the molecular mechanism underlying the death of motor neurons in NR3B null mice. As NR3B is expressed primarily in the motor neurons of hindbrain and spinal cord, we have first collected and analyzed the spinal cord samples from NR3B null mice and wild-type controls in P4, an age of disease onset. We like to compare motor neuron and spinal cord smaples from SOD1 mice at the age prior to the disease onset. Total RNA from total 12 samples will be purified from ~200 motor neurons obtained by Laser Capture Microdissection and the total spinal cord. Extracted RNAs will be subjected to one or two rounds of amplification and the obtained cRNA will be biotinylated. The purified cRNA will be sent to the NINDS/NIMH Microarray Consortium be used to hybridize the GeneChip Mouse Genome 430 2.0 Array. The hybridization, scanning, and initial data analysis of these GeneChips will be conducted by the Consortium staff. We will analyze the collected data further after data collection. We will first identify genes that show significant changes between wild-type and SOD1 mice and then compare that with the result from NR3B null mice.
Project description:Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a paralytic degenerative disease of the nervous system. In the SOD1 mouse model of ALS we found loss of the molecular and functional microglia signature associated with pronounced expression of miR-155 in SOD1 mice. We also found increased expression of miR-155 in the spinal cord of ALS subjects. Genetic ablation of miR-155 increased survival in SOD1 mice and reversed the abnormal microglial and monocyte molecular signature. In addition, dysregulated proteins in the spinal cord of SOD1 mice that we identified in human ALS spinal cords and CSF were restored in SOD1G93A/miR155-/- mice. Treatment of SOD1 mice with anti-miR-155 SOD1 mice injected systemically or into the cerebrospinal fluid prolonged survival and restored the microglial unique genetic and microRNA profiles. Our findings provide a new avenue for immune based therapy of ALS by targeting miR-155.