1
|
Harripaul R, Morini E, Salani M, Logan E, Kirchner E, Bolduc J, Chekuri A, Currall B, Yadav R, Erdin S, Talkowski ME, Gao D, Slaugenhaupt S. Transcriptome analysis in a humanized mouse model of familial dysautonomia reveals tissue-specific gene expression disruption in the peripheral nervous system. Sci Rep 2024; 14:570. [PMID: 38177237 PMCID: PMC10766950 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-51137-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2023] [Accepted: 12/31/2023] [Indexed: 01/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Familial dysautonomia (FD) is a rare recessive neurodevelopmental disease caused by a splice mutation in the Elongator acetyltransferase complex subunit 1 (ELP1) gene. This mutation results in a tissue-specific reduction of ELP1 protein, with the lowest levels in the central and peripheral nervous systems (CNS and PNS, respectively). FD patients exhibit complex neurological phenotypes due to the loss of sensory and autonomic neurons. Disease symptoms include decreased pain and temperature perception, impaired or absent myotatic reflexes, proprioceptive ataxia, and progressive retinal degeneration. While the involvement of the PNS in FD pathogenesis has been clearly recognized, the underlying mechanisms responsible for the preferential neuronal loss remain unknown. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying FD by conducting a comprehensive transcriptome analysis of neuronal tissues from the phenotypic mouse model TgFD9; Elp1Δ20/flox. This mouse recapitulates the same tissue-specific ELP1 mis-splicing observed in patients while modeling many of the disease manifestations. Comparison of FD and control transcriptomes from dorsal root ganglion (DRG), trigeminal ganglion (TG), medulla (MED), cortex, and spinal cord (SC) showed significantly more differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the PNS than the CNS. We then identified genes that were tightly co-expressed and functionally dependent on the level of full-length ELP1 transcript. These genes, defined as ELP1 dose-responsive genes, were combined with the DEGs to generate tissue-specific dysregulated FD signature genes and networks. Within the PNS networks, we observed direct connections between Elp1 and genes involved in tRNA synthesis and genes related to amine metabolism and synaptic signaling. Importantly, transcriptomic dysregulation in PNS tissues exhibited enrichment for neuronal subtype markers associated with peptidergic nociceptors and myelinated sensory neurons, which are known to be affected in FD. In summary, this study has identified critical tissue-specific gene networks underlying the etiology of FD and provides new insights into the molecular basis of the disease.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ricardo Harripaul
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics and Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Elisabetta Morini
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Monica Salani
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Emily Logan
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Emily Kirchner
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jessica Bolduc
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Anil Chekuri
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Benjamin Currall
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics and Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Rachita Yadav
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics and Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Serkan Erdin
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics and Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Michael E Talkowski
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics and Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Dadi Gao
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Susan Slaugenhaupt
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Younger DS. Autonomic failure: Clinicopathologic, physiologic, and genetic aspects. HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL NEUROLOGY 2023; 195:55-102. [PMID: 37562886 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-323-98818-6.00020-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/12/2023]
Abstract
Over the past century, generations of neuroscientists, pathologists, and clinicians have elucidated the underlying causes of autonomic failure found in neurodegenerative, inherited, and antibody-mediated autoimmune disorders, each with pathognomonic clinicopathologic features. Autonomic failure affects central autonomic nervous system components in the α-synucleinopathy, multiple system atrophy, characterized clinically by levodopa-unresponsive parkinsonism or cerebellar ataxia, and pathologically by argyrophilic glial cytoplasmic inclusions (GCIs). Two other central neurodegenerative disorders, pure autonomic failure characterized clinically by deficits in norepinephrine synthesis and release from peripheral sympathetic nerve terminals; and Parkinson's disease, with early and widespread autonomic deficits independent of the loss of striatal dopamine terminals, both express Lewy pathology. The rare congenital disorder, hereditary sensory, and autonomic neuropathy type III (or Riley-Day, familial dysautonomia) causes life-threatening autonomic failure due to a genetic mutation that results in loss of functioning baroreceptors, effectively separating afferent mechanosensing neurons from the brain. Autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy caused by autoantibodies targeting ganglionic α3-acetylcholine receptors instead presents with subacute isolated autonomic failure affecting sympathetic, parasympathetic, and enteric nervous system function in various combinations. This chapter is an overview of these major autonomic disorders with an emphasis on their historical background, neuropathological features, etiopathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- David S Younger
- Department of Clinical Medicine and Neuroscience, CUNY School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States; Department of Medicine, Section of Internal Medicine and Neurology, White Plains Hospital, White Plains, NY, United States.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
First person – Zariah Tolman. Dis Model Mech 2022. [PMCID: PMC9187868 DOI: 10.1242/dmm.049639] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Zariah Tolman is first author on ‘
Elp1 is required for development of visceral sensory peripheral and central circuitry’, published in DMM. Zariah conducted the research described in this article while an undergraduate research assistant in Frances Lefcort's lab at Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA. She graduated with a Master's degree under the advice of Mark Schure at Montana State University, investigating the mechanisms of how youth develop emotion regulation strategies and how emotional regulation relates to wellbeing.
Collapse
|
4
|
Leonard CE, Quiros J, Lefcort F, Taneyhill LA. Loss of Elp1 disrupts trigeminal ganglion neurodevelopment in a model of familial dysautonomia. eLife 2022; 11:71455. [PMID: 35713404 PMCID: PMC9273214 DOI: 10.7554/elife.71455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2021] [Accepted: 06/17/2022] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Familial dysautonomia (FD) is a sensory and autonomic neuropathy caused by mutations in elongator complex protein 1 (ELP1). FD patients have small trigeminal nerves and impaired facial pain and temperature perception. These signals are relayed by nociceptive neurons in the trigeminal ganglion, a structure that is composed of both neural crest- and placode-derived cells. Mice lacking Elp1 in neural crest derivatives ('Elp1 CKO') are born with small trigeminal ganglia, suggesting Elp1 is important for trigeminal ganglion development, yet the function of Elp1 in this context is unknown. We demonstrate that Elp1, expressed in both neural crest- and placode-derived neurons, is not required for initial trigeminal ganglion formation. However, Elp1 CKO trigeminal neurons exhibit abnormal axon outgrowth and deficient target innervation. Developing nociceptors expressing the receptor TrkA undergo early apoptosis in Elp1 CKO, while TrkB- and TrkC-expressing neurons are spared, indicating Elp1 supports the target innervation and survival of trigeminal nociceptors. Furthermore, we demonstrate that specific TrkA deficits in the Elp1 CKO trigeminal ganglion reflect the neural crest lineage of most TrkA neurons versus the placodal lineage of most TrkB and TrkC neurons. Altogether, these findings explain defects in cranial gangliogenesis that may lead to loss of facial pain and temperature sensation in FD.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Carrie E Leonard
- Department of Avian and Animal Sciences, University of Maryland, College ParkCollege ParkUnited States
| | - Jolie Quiros
- Department of Avian and Animal Sciences, University of Maryland, College ParkCollege ParkUnited States
| | - Frances Lefcort
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Montana State UniversityBozemanUnited States
| | - Lisa A Taneyhill
- Department of Avian and Animal Sciences, University of Maryland, College ParkCollege ParkUnited States
| |
Collapse
|