This consortium aims to capitalize on an unprecedented """"""""grand"""""""" opportunity to develop a novel and powerful model of Huntington's disease (HD), a fatal neurodegenerative condition with no current treatment. Skin cells from patients with HD can be reprogrammed to pluripotency and then differentiated into specific neuronal and glial cell types, permitting investigation of the effects of the genetic lesion in the susceptible human cell types. We hypothesize that the genetic changes that cause HD lead to specific alterations in neuronal function- perhaps even survival-that will give important clues as to the mechanism and progression of disease. Altered cellular phenotypes will also serve as the foundation for translational research and drug development. Stimulus funding will bring together a highly focused group that (i) has a strong track record of innovative HD research and of working together, (ii) is poised to engage in cutting-edge research with recently generated induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from HD patients and is committed to broad distribution of findings, protocols and iPS lines, (iii) can capitalize on this stimulus funding through further grant applications and collaborative studies, and (iv) is partnered with CHDI, an HD foundation with dedicated HD stem cell and translational/drug discovery programs. This infusion of funds will accelerate the coordinated analysis of iPS lines and leverage the complementary, synergistic skill sets that will move the field forward more rapidly than would be possible by any group alone. The proposed studies will provide an entirely novel genetically accurate model to test new drugs in the fight against this disease, a unique resource that will benefit the entire HD community.

Public Health Relevance

We hypothesize that the genetic changes that cause Huntington's disease lead to specific alterations in neuronal function-perhaps even survival-that, in turn, give important clues as to the mechanism of disease and its progression and offer a potential basis for small molecule screening assays. Our studies will provide a more authentic way to study the consequences of the HD mutation in human target cells. They represent a unique and timely opportunity to enhance the investigation of disease mechanisms and will generate a validated resource freely available to the HD community to further accelerate HD research toward a successful treatment.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
High Impact Research and Research Infrastructure Programs (RC2)
Project #
1RC2NS069422-01
Application #
7853331
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZNS1-SRB-E (32))
Program Officer
Sutherland, Margaret L
Project Start
2009-09-30
Project End
2011-08-31
Budget Start
2009-09-30
Budget End
2010-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$1,859,850
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Irvine
Department
Other Basic Sciences
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
046705849
City
Irvine
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
92697
Gomez-Pastor, Rocio; Burchfiel, Eileen T; Neef, Daniel W et al. (2017) Abnormal degradation of the neuronal stress-protective transcription factor HSF1 in Huntington's disease. Nat Commun 8:14405
HD iPSC Consortium (2017) Developmental alterations in Huntington's disease neural cells and pharmacological rescue in cells and mice. Nat Neurosci 20:648-660
Lim, Ryan G; Quan, Chris; Reyes-Ortiz, Andrea M et al. (2017) Huntington's Disease iPSC-Derived Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells Reveal WNT-Mediated Angiogenic and Blood-Brain Barrier Deficits. Cell Rep 19:1365-1377
Ratovitski, Tamara; Chaerkady, Raghothama; Kammers, Kai et al. (2016) Quantitative Proteomic Analysis Reveals Similarities between Huntington's Disease (HD) and Huntington's Disease-Like 2 (HDL2) Human Brains. J Proteome Res 15:3266-83
Sareen, Dhruv; Gowing, Geneviève; Sahabian, Anais et al. (2014) Human induced pluripotent stem cells are a novel source of neural progenitor cells (iNPCs) that migrate and integrate in the rodent spinal cord. J Comp Neurol 522:2707-28
Sareen, Dhruv; O'Rourke, Jacqueline G; Meera, Pratap et al. (2013) Targeting RNA foci in iPSC-derived motor neurons from ALS patients with a C9ORF72 repeat expansion. Sci Transl Med 5:208ra149
Wray, Selina; Self, Matthew; NINDS Parkinson's Disease iPSC Consortium et al. (2012) Creation of an open-access, mutation-defined fibroblast resource for neurological disease research. PLoS One 7:e43099
HD iPSC Consortium (2012) Induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with Huntington's disease show CAG-repeat-expansion-associated phenotypes. Cell Stem Cell 11:264-78