Down syndrome (DS), or trisomy 21, is the leading genetic cause of intellectual disability in children, with approximately 1 in 700 live births carrying an extra copy of chromosome 21. Compared to less common single gene disorders, DS pathogenesis is still poorly understood. Treatment for DS would require either identification of molecular pathways to target with conventional therapies or, potentially, chromosomal therapy to silence the many possibly disruptive genes on the trisomic chromosome. One window of therapeutic intervention lies in the Alzheimer?s disease pathology that almost all DS patients suffer from in middle age. Recently, the extra chromosome has been silenced in an inducible manner by targeted insertion of a transgene for the XIST gene into human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). XIST normally silences one X chromosome in females, providing a natural mechanism of dosage compensation. Chromosomal silencing in DS cells provides a powerful isogenic and isoepigenetic model for studying DS pathology and marks the first step towards the goal of chromosomal therapy for DS patients. The proposed work will investigate the effect of silencing the extra chromosome on DS iPSC-derived neuronal cells, investigating both DS and Alzheimer- specific phenotypes.
Aim 1 : In order to investigate the effect that chromosomal silencing has on DS neural phenotypes in vitro, iPSCs will be differentiated into neurons using conventional two-dimensional neuronal culturing techniques and three-dimensional organoids. Cerebral organoids are a recently-developed tool that have been shown to be a useful model for human brain development, and have been used to study disorders of brain development. Neurons derived from iPSCs with two and three functional copies of Chr.21 will be compared for phenotypes that DS neural cells are thought to possess. These include an increased glia:neuron ratio, altered dendritic spine morphology, and altered mitochondrial morphology. Three-dimensional cultures will be used to investigate less well-explored pathologies such as alterations in cortical lamination.
This aim will also address the important therapeutic question of whether post-mitotic cells can support chromosomal silencing.
Aim 2 : The same chromosomal silencing system will be used to investigate Alzheimer?s-associated neuronal phenotypes. These include intra and extracellular amyloid deposition as well as intracellular hyperphosphylated tau deposition. Due to its relatively late onset compared to general intellectual disability, the Alzheimer?s disease component of DS is most suitable for therapeutic intervention. Studying the effect of chromosomal silencing on Alzheimer?s phenotypes provides a strong model for Alzheimer?s pathogenesis while also bringing this novel strategy one step closer to therapeutics. This proposal seeks to utilize a novel chromosomal silencing technique to better model human neural phenotypes in DS and associated AD.
A new system has been developed that allows for the extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome to be shut off in cultured cells. This project will look at the effect that shutting off the chromosome has on brain cells and will begin to evaluate whether this strategy could be used to treat patients with Down syndrome in the future.
