RESUMEN
Prenatal alcohol exposure is the foremost preventable etiology of intellectual disability and leads to a collection of diagnoses known as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Alcohol (EtOH) impacts diverse neural cell types and activity, but the precise functional pathophysiological effects on the human fetal cerebral cortex are unclear. Here, we used human cortical organoids to study the effects of EtOH on neurogenesis and validated our findings in primary human fetal neurons. EtOH exposure produced temporally dependent cellular effects on proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis. In addition, we identified EtOH-induced alterations in post-translational histone modifications and chromatin accessibility, leading to impairment of cAMP and calcium signaling, glutamatergic synaptic development, and astrocytic function. Proteomic spatial profiling of cortical organoids showed region-specific, EtOH-induced alterations linked to changes in cytoskeleton, gliogenesis, and impaired synaptogenesis. Finally, multi-electrode array electrophysiology recordings confirmed the deleterious impact of EtOH on neural network formation and activity in cortical organoids, which was validated in primary human fetal tissues. Our findings demonstrate progress in defining the human molecular and cellular phenotypic signatures of prenatal alcohol exposure on functional neurodevelopment, increasing our knowledge for potential therapeutic interventions targeting FASD symptoms.
Asunto(s)
Corteza Cerebral , Etanol , Vías Nerviosas , Neurogénesis , Neuronas , Organoides , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Embarazo , Astrocitos/efectos de los fármacos , Ciclo Celular/efectos de los fármacos , Proliferación Celular/efectos de los fármacos , Supervivencia Celular/efectos de los fármacos , Corteza Cerebral/citología , Ensamble y Desensamble de Cromatina/efectos de los fármacos , Ensamble y Desensamble de Cromatina/genética , Epigénesis Genética/efectos de los fármacos , Epigénesis Genética/genética , Etanol/farmacología , Trastornos del Espectro Alcohólico Fetal/etiología , Trastornos del Espectro Alcohólico Fetal/genética , Feto/citología , Perfilación de la Expresión Génica , Red Nerviosa/efectos de los fármacos , Trastornos del Neurodesarrollo/inducido químicamente , Trastornos del Neurodesarrollo/genética , Trastornos del Neurodesarrollo/patología , Neurogénesis/efectos de los fármacos , Neuronas/citología , Neuronas/efectos de los fármacos , Neuronas/patología , Organoides/citología , Organoides/efectos de los fármacos , Organoides/patología , Efectos Tardíos de la Exposición Prenatal/inducido químicamente , Efectos Tardíos de la Exposición Prenatal/genética , Proteómica , Sinapsis/efectos de los fármacos , Vías Nerviosas/efectos de los fármacosRESUMEN
Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS), a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by hemizygous loss of 26-28 genes at 7q11.23, characteristically portray a hypersocial phenotype. Copy-number variations and mutations in one of these genes, GTF2I, are associated with altered sociality and are proposed to underlie hypersociality in WS. However, the contribution of GTF2I to human neurodevelopment remains poorly understood. Here, human cellular models of neurodevelopment, including neural progenitors, neurons, and three-dimensional cortical organoids, are differentiated from CRISPR-Cas9-edited GTF2I-knockout (GTF2I-KO) pluripotent stem cells to investigate the role of GTF2I in human neurodevelopment. GTF2I-KO progenitors exhibit increased proliferation and cell-cycle alterations. Cortical organoids and neurons demonstrate increased cell death and synaptic dysregulation, including synaptic structural dysfunction and decreased electrophysiological activity on a multielectrode array. Our findings suggest that changes in synaptic circuit integrity may be a prominent mediator of the link between alterations in GTF2I and variation in the phenotypic expression of human sociality.