BCL7A-containing SWI/SNF/BAF complexes modulate mitochondrial bioenergetics during neural progenitor differentiation.

Mammalian SWI/SNF/BAF chromatin remodeling complexes influence cell lineage determination. While the contribution of these complexes to neural progenitor cell (NPC) proliferation and differentiation has been reported, little is known about the transcriptional profiles that determine neurogenesis or gliogenesis. Here, we report that BCL7A is a modulator of the SWI/SNF/BAF complex that stimulates the genome-wide occupancy of the ATPase subunit BRG1. We demonstrate that BCL7A is dispensable for SWI/SNF/BAF complex integrity, whereas it is essential to regulate Notch/Wnt pathway signaling and mitochondrial bioenergetics in differentiating NPCs. Pharmacological stimulation of Wnt signaling restores mitochondrial respiration and attenuates the defective neurogenic patterns observed in NPCs lacking BCL7A. Consistently, treatment with an enhancer of mitochondrial biogenesis, pioglitazone, partially restores mitochondrial respiration and stimulates neuronal differentiation of BCL7A-deficient NPCs. Using conditional BCL7A knockout mice, we reveal that BCL7A expression in NPCs and postmitotic neurons is required for neuronal plasticity and supports behavioral and cognitive performance. Together, our findings define the specific contribution of BCL7A-containing SWI/SNF/BAF complexes to mitochondria-driven NPC commitment, thereby providing a better understanding of the cell-intrinsic transcriptional processes that connect metabolism, neuronal morphogenesis, and cognitive flexibility.

Brain organoids: A revolutionary tool for modeling neurological disorders and development of therapeutics.

Brain organoids are self-organized, three-dimensional (3D) aggregates derived from pluripotent stem cells that have cell types and cellular architectures resembling those of the developing human brain. The current understanding of human brain developmental processes and neurological disorders has advanced significantly with the introduction of this in vitro model. Brain organoids serve as a translational link between two-dimensional (2D) cultures and in vivo models which imitate the neural tube formation at the early and late stages and the differentiation of neuroepithelium with whole-brain regionalization. In addition, the generation of region-specific brain organoids made it possible to investigate the pathogenic and etiological aspects of acquired and inherited brain disease along with drug discovery and drug toxicity testing. In this review article, we first summarize an overview of the existing methods and platforms used for generating brain organoids and their limitations and then discuss the recent advancement in brain organoid technology. In addition, we discuss how brain organoids have been used to model aspects of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Rett syndrome, Zika virus-related microcephaly, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and Huntington's disease (HD).

Patterns of Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Infection in Neural Progenitor Cells.

Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) can induce damage in brain regions that include the hippocampus and associated limbic structures. These neurogenic niches are important because they are associated with memory formation and are highly enriched with neural progenitor cells (NPCs). The susceptibility and fate of HSV-1-infected NPCs are largely unexplored. We differentiated human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into NPCs to generate two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) culture models to examine the interaction of HSV-1 with NPCs. Here, we show that (i) NPCs can be efficiently infected by HSV-1, but infection does not result in cell death of most NPCs, even at high multiplicities of infection (MOIs); (ii) limited HSV-1 replication and gene expression can be detected in the infected NPCs; (iii) a viral silencing mechanism is established in NPCs exposed to the antivirals (E)-5-(2-bromovinyl)-2'-deoxyuridine (5BVdU) and alpha interferon (IFN-α) and when the antivirals are removed, spontaneous reactivation can occur at low frequency; (iv) HSV-1 impairs the ability of NPCs to migrate in a dose-dependent fashion in the presence of 5BVdU plus IFN-α; and (v) 3D cultures of NPCs are less susceptible to HSV-1 infection than 2D cultures. These results suggest that NPC pools could be sites of HSV-1 reactivation in the central nervous system (CNS). Finally, our results highlight the potential value of hiPSC-derived 3D cultures to model HSV-1-NPC interaction.IMPORTANCE This study employed human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to model the interaction of HSV-1 with NPCs, which reside in the neurogenic niches of the CNS and play a fundamental role in adult neurogenesis. Herein, we provide evidence that in NPCs infected at an MOI as low as 0.001, HSV-1 can establish a latent state, suggesting that (i) a variant of classical HSV-1 latency can be established during earlier stages of neuronal differentiation and (ii) neurogenic niches in the brain may constitute additional sites of viral reactivation. Lytic HSV-1 infections impaired NPC migration, which represents a critical step in neurogenesis. A difference in susceptibility to HSV-1 infection between two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) NPC cultures was observed, highlighting the potential value of 3D cultures for modeling host-pathogen interactions. Together, our results are relevant in light of observations relating HSV-1 infection to postencephalitic cognitive dysfunction.

The Antioxidant Phytochemical Schisandrin A Promotes Neural Cell Proliferation and Differentiation after Ischemic Brain Injury.

Schisandrin A (SCH) is a natural bioactive phytonutrient that belongs to the lignan derivatives found in Schisandra chinensis fruit. This study aims to investigate the impact of SCH on promoting neural progenitor cell (NPC) regeneration for avoiding stroke ischemic injury. The promoting effect of SCH on NPCs was evaluated by photothrombotic model, immunofluorescence, cell line culture of NPCs, and Western blot assay. The results showed that neuron-specific class III beta-tubulin (Tuj1) was positive with Map2 positive nerve fibers in the ischemic area after using SCH. In addition, Nestin and SOX2 positive NPCs were significantly (p < 0.05) increased in the penumbra and core. Further analysis identified that SCH can regulate the expression level of cell division control protein 42 (Cdc42). In conclusion, our findings suggest that SCH enhanced NPCs proliferation and differentiation possible by Cdc42 to regulated cytoskeletal rearrangement and polarization of cells, which provides new hope for the late recovery of stroke.

Mechanisms of ischaemic neural progenitor proliferation: a regulatory role of the HIF-1α-CBX7 pathway.

AIMS: Investigations of the molecular mechanisms of hypoxia- and ischaemia-induced endogenous neural progenitor cell (NPC) proliferation have mainly focused on factors secreted in response to environmental cues. However, little is known about the intrinsic regulatory machinery underlying the self-renewing division of NPCs in the brain after stroke. METHODS AND RESULTS: Polycomb repressor complex 1-chromobox7 (CBX7) has emerged as a key regulator in several cellular processes including stem cell self-renewal and cancer cell proliferation. The hypoxic environment triggering NPC self-renewal after CBX7 activation remains unknown. In this study, we found that the upregulation of CBX7 during hypoxia and ischaemia appeared to be from hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) activation. During hypoxia, the HIF-1α-CBX7 cascade modulated NPC proliferation in vitro. NPC numbers significantly decreased in CBX7 knockout mice generated using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. CONCLUSIONS: We provided the novel insight that CBX7 expression is regulated through HIF-1α activation, which plays an intrinsically modulating role in NPC proliferation.

MiR-134-Mbd3 axis regulates the induction of pluripotency.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are post-transcriptional modulators of gene expression and play an important role in reprogramming process; however, relatively little is known about the underlying regulatory mechanism of miRNAs on how they epigenetically modulate reprogramming and pluripotency. Here, we report that the expression level of microRNA-134 (miR-134) was low in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) but significantly up-regulated during neural differentiation, while down-regulated during the induction of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from neural progenitor cells (NPCs). Inhibition of miR-134 by miR-134 sponge promoted the efficiency of reprogramming which also was highly similar to mESCs. On the contrary, up-regulation of miR-134 repressed iPSCs induction. We also found that inhibition of miR-134 promoted the maturation of pre-iPSCs and increased its pluripotency. We also showed that miR-134 can directly target to the pluripotency related factor Methyl-CpG-binding domain protein 3 (Mdb3) 3' untranslated regions (3' UTR) to down-regulate its expression. And Mbd3 was found to promote the induction of iPSCs and could block the repression of reprogramming caused by overexpression of miR-134. This work revealed the critical function of miR-134-Mbd3 axis on regulating reprogramming and pluripotency of iPSCs derived from the NPCs, and might provide an insight into the miR-134-Mbd3 axis on regulating the iPSCs quality for further clinical treatment.

Review: Could neurotransmitters influence neurogenesis and neurorepair after stroke?

Brain ischaemia and reperfusion produce alterations in the microenvironment of the parenchyma, including ATP depletion, ionic homeostasis alterations, inflammation, release of multiple cytokines and abnormal release of neurotransmitters. As a consequence, the induction of proliferation and migration of neural stem cells is redirected towards the peri-infarct region. The success of new neurorestorative treatments for damaged brain implies the need to describe with greater accuracy the mechanisms in charge of regulating adult neurogenesis, under both physiological and pathological conditions. Recent evidence demonstrates that many neurotransmitters, glutamate in particular, control the subventricular zone (SVZ), thus being part of the complex signal network that exerts a remarkable influence on the production of new neurones. Neurotransmitters provide a link between brain activity and SVZ neurogenesis. Therefore, a deeper knowledge of the role of neurotransmitters systems, such as glutamate and its transporters, in adult neurogenesis, may prove a valuable tool to be utilized as a neurorestorative therapy in this pathology.

Generation of Oligodendrocytes from Human Pluripotent and Embryonic Stem Cells.

Oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) and mature oligodendrocytes (OLs) can be generated using human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). By manipulating culture conditions, pluripotent cell types are serially guided through intermediary cell types, developing first into neural progenitor cells (NPCs) then OPCs before maturing as CNS-specific OLs. This procedure is conducted under adherent, feeder-free conditions to derive mature OLs in as few as 28 days.

CUT & RUN to Profile Chromatin-Bound Proteins in Primary Mouse Neural Progenitor Cells.

Cleavage under targets and release using nuclease (CUT & RUN) is an innovative method to profile histone modifications and chromatin-bound proteins genome-wide. CUT & RUN offers two distinct advantages of requiring much fewer cells and providing strong signal-to-noise ratios in deep-sequencing data. Here, we describe a workflow starting from dissociation and sorting of mouse embryonic brains, CUT & RUN, and DNA library preparation to deep sequencing. With our workflow, researchers can obtain high-quality sequencing data to profile histones and chromatin-associated proteins by using as few as 100,000 neural progenitor cells (NPCs).

ARHGEF39, a Gene Implicated in Developmental Language Disorder, Activates RHOA and Is Involved in Cell De-Adhesion and Neural Progenitor Cell Proliferation.

ARHGEF39 was previously implicated in developmental language disorder (DLD) via a functional polymorphism that can disrupt post-transcriptional regulation by microRNAs. ARHGEF39 is part of the family of Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factors (RhoGEFs) that activate small Rho GTPases to regulate a wide variety of cellular processes. However, little is known about the function of ARHGEF39, or how its function might contribute to neurodevelopment or related disorders. Here, we explore the molecular function of ARHGEF39 and show that it activates the Rho GTPase RHOA and that high ARHGEF39 expression in cell cultures leads to an increase of detached cells. To explore its role in neurodevelopment, we analyse published single cell RNA-sequencing data and demonstrate that ARHGEF39 is a marker gene for proliferating neural progenitor cells and that it is co-expressed with genes involved in cell division. This suggests a role for ARHGEF39 in neurogenesis in the developing brain. The co-expression of ARHGEF39 with other RHOA-regulating genes supports RHOA as substrate of ARHGEF39 in neural cells, and the involvement of RHOA in neuropsychiatric disorders highlights a potential link between ARHGEF39 and neurodevelopment and disorder. Understanding the GTPase substrate, co-expression network, and processes downstream of ARHGEF39 provide new avenues for exploring the mechanisms by which altered expression levels of ARHGEF39 may contribute to neurodevelopment and associated disorders.

Selected Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors Reverse the Frataxin Transcriptional Defect in a Novel Friedreich's Ataxia Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neuronal Reporter System.

Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by the expansion of guanine-adenine-adenine repeats within the first intron of the frataxin (FXN) gene. The location and nature of the expansion have been proven to contribute to transcriptional repression of FXN by decreasing the rate of polymerase II (RNA polymerase II) progression and increasing the presence of histone modifications associated with a heterochromatin-like state. Targeting impaired FXN transcription appears as a feasible option for therapeutic intervention, while no cure currently exists. We created a novel reporter cell line containing an FXN-Nanoluciferase (FXN-NLuc) fusion in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) reprogrammed from the fibroblasts of patients with FRDA, thus allowing quantification of endogenous FXN expression. The use of iPSCs provides the opportunity to differentiate these cells into disease-relevant neural progenitor cells (NPCs). NPCs derived from the FXN-NLuc line responded to treatments with a known FXN inducer, RG109. Results were validated by quantitative PCR and Western blot in multiple FRDA NPC lines. We then screened a commercially available library of compounds consisting of molecules targeting various enzymes and pathways critical for silencing or activation of gene expression. Only selected histone deacetylase inhibitors were capable of partial reactivation of FXN expression. This endogenous, FRDA iPSC-derived reporter can be utilized for high-throughput campaigns performed in cells most relevant to disease pathology in search of FXN transcription activators.

Regenerative replacement of neural cells for treatment of spinal cord injury.

Introduction: Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) results from primary physical injury to the spinal cord, which initiates a secondary cascade of neural cell death. Current therapeutic approaches can attenuate the consequences of the primary and secondary events, but do not address the degenerative aspects of SCI. Transplantation of neural stem/progenitor cells (NPCs) for the replacement of the lost/damaged neural cells is suggested here as a regenerative approach that is complementary to current therapeutics.Areas Covered: This review addresses how neurons, oligodendrocytes, and astrocytes are impacted by traumatic SCI, and how current research in regenerative-NPC therapeutics aims to restore their functionality. Methods used to enhance graft survival, as well as bias progenitor cells towards neuronal, oligodendrogenic, and astroglia lineages are discussed.Expert Opinion: Despite an NPC's ability to differentiate into neurons, oligodendrocytes, and astrocytes in the transplant environment, their potential therapeutic efficacy requires further optimization prior to translation into the clinic. Considering the temporospatial identity of NPCs could promote neural repair in region specific injuries throughout the spinal cord. Moreover, understanding which cells are targeted by NPC-derived myelinating cells can help restore physiologically-relevant myelin patterns. Finally, the duality of astrocytes is discussed, outlining their context-dependent importance in the treatment of SCI.

Robust Expression of Functional NMDA Receptors in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neuronal Cultures Using an Accelerated Protocol.

N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are critical for higher-order nervous system function, but in previously published protocols to convert human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to mature neurons, functional NMDA receptors (NMDARs) are often either not reported or take an extended time to develop. Here, we describe a protocol to convert human iPSC-derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs) to mature neurons in only 37 days. We demonstrate that the mature neurons express functional NMDARs exhibiting ligand-activated calcium flux, and we document the presence of NMDAR-mediated electrically evoked postsynaptic current. In addition to being more rapid than previous procedures, our protocol is straightforward, does not produce organoids which are difficult to image, and does not involve co-culture with rodent astrocytes. This could enhance our ability to study primate/human-specific aspects of NMDAR function and signaling in health and disease.

Gene Regulation Analysis Reveals Perturbations of Autism Spectrum Disorder during Neural System Development.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that impedes patients' cognition, social, speech and communication skills. ASD is highly heterogeneous with a variety of etiologies and clinical manifestations. The prevalence rate of ASD increased steadily in recent years. Presently, molecular mechanisms underlying ASD occurrence and development remain to be elucidated. Here, we integrated multi-layer genomics data to investigate the transcriptome and pathway dysregulations in ASD development. The RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) expression profiles of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and neuron cells from ASD and normal samples were compared in our study. We found that substantially more genes were differentially expressed in the NPCs than the iPSCs. Consistently, gene set variation analysis revealed that the activity of the known ASD pathways in NPCs and neural cells were significantly different from the iPSCs, suggesting that ASD occurred at the early stage of neural system development. We further constructed comprehensive brain- and neural-specific regulatory networks by incorporating transcription factor (TF) and gene interactions with long 5 non-coding RNA(lncRNA) and protein interactions. We then overlaid the transcriptomes of different cell types on the regulatory networks to infer the regulatory cascades. The variations of the regulatory cascades between ASD and normal samples uncovered a set of novel disease-associated genes and gene interactions, particularly highlighting the functional roles of ELF3 and the interaction between STAT1 and lncRNA ELF3-AS 1 in the disease development. These new findings extend our understanding of ASD and offer putative new therapeutic targets for further studies.

Cell-Based Therapy for Canavan Disease Using Human iPSC-Derived NPCs and OPCs.

Canavan disease (CD) is a fatal leukodystrophy caused by mutation of the aspartoacylase (ASPA) gene, which leads to deficiency in ASPA activity, accumulation of the substrate N-acetyl-L-aspartate (NAA), demyelination, and spongy degeneration of the brain. There is neither a cure nor a standard treatment for this disease. In this study, human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based cell therapy is developed for CD. A functional ASPA gene is introduced into patient iPSC-derived neural progenitor cells (iNPCs) or oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (iOPCs) via lentiviral transduction or TALEN-mediated genetic engineering to generate ASPA iNPC or ASPA iOPC. After stereotactic transplantation into a CD (Nur7) mouse model, the engrafted cells are able to rescue major pathological features of CD, including deficient ASPA activity, elevated NAA levels, extensive vacuolation, defective myelination, and motor function deficits, in a robust and sustainable manner. Moreover, the transplanted mice exhibit much prolonged survival. These genetically engineered patient iPSC-derived cellular products are promising cell therapies for CD. This study has the potential to bring effective cell therapies, for the first time, to Canavan disease children who have no treatment options. The approach established in this study can also benefit many other children who have deadly genetic diseases that have no cure.

Human Brain Organoids to Decode Mechanisms of Microcephaly.

Brain organoids are stem cell-based self-assembling 3D structures that recapitulate early events of human brain development. Recent improvements with patient-specific 3D brain organoids have begun to elucidate unprecedented details of the defective mechanisms that cause neurodevelopmental disorders of congenital and acquired microcephaly. In particular, brain organoids derived from primary microcephaly patients have uncovered mechanisms that deregulate neural stem cell proliferation, maintenance, and differentiation. Not only did brain organoids reveal unknown aspects of neurogenesis but also have illuminated surprising roles of cellular structures of centrosomes and primary cilia in regulating neurogenesis during brain development. Here, we discuss how brain organoids have started contributing to decoding the complexities of microcephaly, which are unlikely to be identified in the existing non-human models. Finally, we discuss the yet unresolved questions and challenges that can be addressed with the use of brain organoids as in vitro models of neurodevelopmental disorders.

Sustained somatostatin gene expression reverses kindling-induced increases in the number of dividing Type-1 neural stem cells in the hippocampi of behaviorally responsive rats.

Neurogenesis persists throughout life in the hippocampi of all mammals, including humans. In the healthy hippocampus, relatively quiescent Type-1 neural stem cells (NSCs) can give rise to more proliferative Type-2a neural progenitor cells (NPCs), which generate neuronal-committed Type-2b NPCs that mature into Type-3 neuroblasts. Many Type-3 neuroblasts survive and mature into functionally integrated granule neurons over several weeks. In kindling models of epilepsy, neurogenesis is drastically upregulated and many new neurons form aberrant connections that could support epileptogenesis and/or seizures. We have shown that sustained vector-mediated hippocampal somatostatin (SST) expression can both block epileptogenesis and reverse seizure susceptibility in fully kindled rats. Here we test whether adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector-mediated sustained SST expression modulates hippocampal neurogenesis and microglial activation in fully kindled rats. We found significantly more dividing Type-1 NSCs and a corresponding increased number of surviving new neurons in the hippocampi of kindled versus sham-kindled rats. Increased numbers of activated microglia were found in the granule cell layer and hilus of kindled rats at both time points. After intrahippocampal injection with either eGFP or SST-eGFP vector, we found similar numbers of dividing Type-1 NSCs and -2 NPCs and surviving BrdU+ neurons and glia in the hippocampi of kindled rats. Upon observed variability in responses to SST-eGFP (2/4 rats exhibited Grade 0 seizures in the test session), we conducted an additional experiment. We found significantly fewer dividing Type-1 NSCs in the hippocampi of SST-eGFP vector-treated responder rats (5/13 rats) relative to SST-eGFP vector-treated non-responders and eGFP vector-treated controls that exhibited high-grade seizures on the test session. The number of activated microglia was upregulated in the GCL and hilus of kindled rats, regardless of vector treatment. These data support the hypothesis that sustained SST expression exerts antiepileptic effects potentially through normalization of neurogenesis and suggests that abnormally high proliferating Type-1 NSC numbers may be a cellular mechanism of epilepsy.

Proteomic Analysis of Zika Virus Infected Primary Human Fetal Neural Progenitors Suggests a Role for Doublecortin in the Pathological Consequences of Infection in the Cortex.

Zika virus (ZIKV) infection is associated with severe neurological defects in fetuses and newborns, such as microcephaly. However, the underlying mechanisms remain to be elucidated. In this study, proteomic analysis on ZIKV-infected primary human fetal neural progenitor cells (NPCs) revealed that virus infection altered levels of cellular proteins involved in NPC proliferation, differentiation and migration. The transcriptional levels of some of the altered targets were also confirmed by qRT-PCR. Among the altered proteins, doublecortin (DCX) plays an important role in NPC differentiation and migration. Results showed that ZIKV infection downregulated DCX, at both mRNA and protein levels, as early as 1 day post infection (1 dpi), and lasted throughout the virus replication cycle (4 days). The downregulation of DCX was also observed in a ZIKV-infected fetal mouse brain model, which displayed decreased body weight, brain size and weight, as well as defective cortex structure. By screening the ten viral proteins of ZIKV, we found that both the expression of NS4A and NS5 were correlated with the downregulation of both mRNA and protein levels of DCX in NPCs. These data suggest that DCX is modulated following infection of the brain by ZIKV. How these observed changes of DCX expression translate in the pathological consequences of ZIKV infection and if other cellular proteins are equally involved remains to be investigated.

Human cytomegalovirus infection dysregulates neural progenitor cell fate by disrupting Hes1 rhythm and down-regulating its expression.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is a leading cause of birth defects, primarily affecting the central nervous system and causing its maldevelopment. As the essential downstream effector of Notch signaling pathway, Hes1, and its dynamic expression, plays an essential role on maintaining neural progenitor /stem cells (NPCs) cell fate and fetal brain development. In the present study, we reported the first observation of Hes1 oscillatory expression in human NPCs, with an approximately 1.5 hour periodicity and a Hes1 protein half-life of about 17 (17.6 ± 0.2) minutes. HCMV infection disrupts the Hes1 rhythm and down-regulates its expression. Furthermore, we discovered that depleting Hes1 protein disturbed NPCs cell fate by suppressing NPCs proliferation and neurosphere formation, and driving NPCs abnormal differentiation. These results suggested a novel mechanism linking disruption of Hes1 rhythm and down-regulation of Hes1 expression to neurodevelopmental disorders caused by congenital HCMV infection.