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Frydas A, Wauters E, van der Zee J, Van Broeckhoven C. Uncovering the impact of noncoding variants in neurodegenerative brain diseases. Trends Genet 2021; 38:258-272. [PMID: 34535299 DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2021.08.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2021] [Revised: 08/11/2021] [Accepted: 08/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Neurodegenerative brain diseases (NBDs) are characterized by cognitive decline and movement impairments caused by neuronal loss in different brain regions. A large fraction of the genetic heritability of NBDs is not explained by the current known mutations. Genome-wide association studies identified novel disease-risk loci, adding to the genetic basis of NBDs. Many of the associated variants reside in noncoding regions with distinct molecular functions. Genetic variation in these regions can alter functions and contribute to disease pathogenesis. Here, we discuss noncoding variants associated with NBDs. Methods for better functional interpretation of noncoding variation will expand our knowledge of the genetic architecture of NBDs and broaden the routes for therapeutic strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandros Frydas
- Neurodegenerative Brain Diseases, Center for Molecular Neurology, VIB, Antwerp, Belgium; Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Eline Wauters
- Neurodegenerative Brain Diseases, Center for Molecular Neurology, VIB, Antwerp, Belgium; Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Julie van der Zee
- Neurodegenerative Brain Diseases, Center for Molecular Neurology, VIB, Antwerp, Belgium; Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Christine Van Broeckhoven
- Neurodegenerative Brain Diseases, Center for Molecular Neurology, VIB, Antwerp, Belgium; Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
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3
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Simone R, Javad F, Emmett W, Wilkins OG, Almeida FL, Barahona-Torres N, Zareba-Paslawska J, Ehteramyan M, Zuccotti P, Modelska A, Siva K, Virdi GS, Mitchell JS, Harley J, Kay VA, Hondhamuni G, Trabzuni D, Ryten M, Wray S, Preza E, Kia DA, Pittman A, Ferrari R, Manzoni C, Lees A, Hardy JA, Denti MA, Quattrone A, Patani R, Svenningsson P, Warner TT, Plagnol V, Ule J, de Silva R. MIR-NATs repress MAPT translation and aid proteostasis in neurodegeneration. Nature 2021; 594:117-123. [PMID: 34012113 PMCID: PMC7610982 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03556-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2016] [Accepted: 04/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
The human genome expresses thousands of natural antisense transcripts (NAT) that can regulate epigenetic state, transcription, RNA stability or translation of their overlapping genes1,2. Here we describe MAPT-AS1, a brain-enriched NAT that is conserved in primates and contains an embedded mammalian-wide interspersed repeat (MIR), which represses tau translation by competing for ribosomal RNA pairing with the MAPT mRNA internal ribosome entry site3. MAPT encodes tau, a neuronal intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) that stabilizes axonal microtubules. Hyperphosphorylated, aggregation-prone tau forms the hallmark inclusions of tauopathies4. Mutations in MAPT cause familial frontotemporal dementia, and common variations forming the MAPT H1 haplotype are a significant risk factor in many tauopathies5 and Parkinson's disease. Notably, expression of MAPT-AS1 or minimal essential sequences from MAPT-AS1 (including MIR) reduces-whereas silencing MAPT-AS1 expression increases-neuronal tau levels, and correlate with tau pathology in human brain. Moreover, we identified many additional NATs with embedded MIRs (MIR-NATs), which are overrepresented at coding genes linked to neurodegeneration and/or encoding IDPs, and confirmed MIR-NAT-mediated translational control of one such gene, PLCG1. These results demonstrate a key role for MAPT-AS1 in tauopathies and reveal a potentially broad contribution of MIR-NATs to the tightly controlled translation of IDPs6, with particular relevance for proteostasis in neurodegeneration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roberto Simone
- Reta Lila Weston Institute, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK.
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK.
| | - Faiza Javad
- Reta Lila Weston Institute, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Warren Emmett
- UCL Genetics Institute, London, UK
- Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- Inivata Ltd, Babraham, UK
| | - Oscar G Wilkins
- Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
| | - Filipa Lourenço Almeida
- Reta Lila Weston Institute, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Natalia Barahona-Torres
- Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | | | - Mazdak Ehteramyan
- Reta Lila Weston Institute, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Paola Zuccotti
- Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology (CIBIO), Trento, Italy
| | - Angelika Modelska
- Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology (CIBIO), Trento, Italy
| | - Kavitha Siva
- Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology (CIBIO), Trento, Italy
| | - Gurvir S Virdi
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
| | - Jamie S Mitchell
- Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
| | - Jasmine Harley
- Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
| | - Victoria A Kay
- Reta Lila Weston Institute, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Geshanthi Hondhamuni
- Reta Lila Weston Institute, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Daniah Trabzuni
- Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Mina Ryten
- Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Selina Wray
- Reta Lila Weston Institute, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Elisavet Preza
- Reta Lila Weston Institute, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Demis A Kia
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Alan Pittman
- Genetics Research Centre, Molecular and Clinical Sciences, St George's University of London, London, UK
| | - Raffaele Ferrari
- Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - Claudia Manzoni
- UCL School of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacology, London, UK
| | - Andrew Lees
- Reta Lila Weston Institute, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | - John A Hardy
- Reta Lila Weston Institute, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- UK Dementia Research Institute, UCL, London, UK
- Institute for Advanced Study, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, SAR, China
| | - Michela A Denti
- Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology (CIBIO), Trento, Italy
| | - Alessandro Quattrone
- Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology (CIBIO), Trento, Italy
| | - Rickie Patani
- Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
| | - Per Svenningsson
- Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Thomas T Warner
- Reta Lila Weston Institute, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
| | | | - Jernej Ule
- Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK
- The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
- National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Rohan de Silva
- Reta Lila Weston Institute, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK.
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK.
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4
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Péladeau C, Jasmin BJ. Targeting IRES-dependent translation as a novel approach for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy. RNA Biol 2020; 18:1238-1251. [PMID: 33164678 DOI: 10.1080/15476286.2020.1847894] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Internal-ribosomal entry sites (IRES) are translational elements that allow the initiation machinery to start protein synthesis via internal initiation. IRESs promote tissue-specific translation in stress conditions when conventional cap-dependent translation is inhibited. Since many IRES-containing mRNAs are relevant to diseases, this cellular mechanism is emerging as an attractive therapeutic target for pharmacological and genetic modulations. Indeed, there has been growing interest over the past years in determining the therapeutic potential of IRESs for several disease conditions such as cancer, neurodegeneration and neuromuscular diseases including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). IRESs relevant for DMD have been identified in several transcripts whose protein product results in functional improvements in dystrophic muscles. Together, these converging lines of evidence indicate that activation of IRES-mediated translation of relevant transcripts in DMD muscle represents a novel and appropriate therapeutic strategy for DMD that warrants further investigation, particularly to identify agents that can modulate their activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christine Péladeau
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and the Eric Poulin Centre for Neuromuscular Disease, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Bernard J Jasmin
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and the Eric Poulin Centre for Neuromuscular Disease, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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5
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Chen JL, Moss WN, Spencer A, Zhang P, Childs-Disney JL, Disney MD. The RNA encoding the microtubule-associated protein tau has extensive structure that affects its biology. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0219210. [PMID: 31291322 PMCID: PMC6619747 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2019] [Accepted: 06/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Tauopathies are neurodegenerative diseases that affect millions of people worldwide including those with Alzheimer’s disease. While many efforts have focused on understanding the role of tau protein in neurodegeneration, there has been little done to systematically analyze and study the structures within tau’s encoding RNA and their connection to disease pathology. Knowledge of RNA structure can provide insights into disease mechanisms and how to affect protein production for therapeutic benefit. Using computational methods based on thermodynamic stability and evolutionary conservation, we identified structures throughout the tau pre-mRNA, especially at exon-intron junctions and within the 5′ and 3′ untranslated regions (UTRs). In particular, structures were identified at twenty exon-intron junctions. The 5′ UTR contains one structured region, which lies within a known internal ribosome entry site. The 3′ UTR contains eight structured regions, including one that contains a polyadenylation signal. A series of functional experiments were carried out to assess the effects of mutations associated with mis-regulation of alternative splicing of exon 10 and to identify regions of the 3′ UTR that contain cis-regulatory elements. These studies defined novel structural regions within the mRNA that affect stability and pre-mRNA splicing and may lead to new therapeutic targets for treating tau-associated diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan L. Chen
- Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, Florida, United States of America
| | - Walter N. Moss
- Roy J. Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, United States of America
| | - Adam Spencer
- Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, Florida, United States of America
| | - Peiyuan Zhang
- Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, Florida, United States of America
| | - Jessica L. Childs-Disney
- Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, Florida, United States of America
| | - Matthew D. Disney
- Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, Florida, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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6
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Zhang S, Zhou J, Hu H, Gong H, Chen L, Cheng C, Zeng J. A deep learning framework for modeling structural features of RNA-binding protein targets. Nucleic Acids Res 2016; 44:e32. [PMID: 26467480 PMCID: PMC4770198 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkv1025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 153] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2015] [Revised: 09/11/2015] [Accepted: 09/28/2015] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) play important roles in the post-transcriptional control of RNAs. Identifying RBP binding sites and characterizing RBP binding preferences are key steps toward understanding the basic mechanisms of the post-transcriptional gene regulation. Though numerous computational methods have been developed for modeling RBP binding preferences, discovering a complete structural representation of the RBP targets by integrating their available structural features in all three dimensions is still a challenging task. In this paper, we develop a general and flexible deep learning framework for modeling structural binding preferences and predicting binding sites of RBPs, which takes (predicted) RNA tertiary structural information into account for the first time. Our framework constructs a unified representation that characterizes the structural specificities of RBP targets in all three dimensions, which can be further used to predict novel candidate binding sites and discover potential binding motifs. Through testing on the real CLIP-seq datasets, we have demonstrated that our deep learning framework can automatically extract effective hidden structural features from the encoded raw sequence and structural profiles, and predict accurate RBP binding sites. In addition, we have conducted the first study to show that integrating the additional RNA tertiary structural features can improve the model performance in predicting RBP binding sites, especially for the polypyrimidine tract-binding protein (PTB), which also provides a new evidence to support the view that RBPs may own specific tertiary structural binding preferences. In particular, the tests on the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) segments yield satisfiable results with experimental support from the literature and further demonstrate the necessity of incorporating RNA tertiary structural information into the prediction model. The source code of our approach can be found in https://github.com/thucombio/deepnet-rbp.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sai Zhang
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Jingtian Zhou
- Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Hailin Hu
- Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Haipeng Gong
- School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Ligong Chen
- Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Chao Cheng
- Department of Genetics, Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences, Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
| | - Jianyang Zeng
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
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