A concerted neuron-astrocyte program declines in ageing and schizophrenia.

Human brains vary across people and over time; such variation is not yet understood in cellular terms. Here we describe a relationship between people's cortical neurons and cortical astrocytes. We used single-nucleus RNA sequencing to analyse the prefrontal cortex of 191 human donors aged 22-97 years, including healthy individuals and people with schizophrenia. Latent-factor analysis of these data revealed that, in people whose cortical neurons more strongly expressed genes encoding synaptic components, cortical astrocytes more strongly expressed distinct genes with synaptic functions and genes for synthesizing cholesterol, an astrocyte-supplied component of synaptic membranes. We call this relationship the synaptic neuron and astrocyte program (SNAP). In schizophrenia and ageing-two conditions that involve declines in cognitive flexibility and plasticity1,2-cells divested from SNAP: astrocytes, glutamatergic (excitatory) neurons and GABAergic (inhibitory) neurons all showed reduced SNAP expression to corresponding degrees. The distinct astrocytic and neuronal components of SNAP both involved genes in which genetic risk factors for schizophrenia were strongly concentrated. SNAP, which varies quantitatively even among healthy people of similar age, may underlie many aspects of normal human interindividual differences and may be an important point of convergence for multiple kinds of pathophysiology.

Concerted neuron-astrocyte gene expression declines in aging and schizophrenia.

Human brains vary across people and over time; such variation is not yet understood in cellular terms. Here we describe a striking relationship between people's cortical neurons and cortical astrocytes. We used single-nucleus RNA-seq to analyze the prefrontal cortex of 191 human donors ages 22-97 years, including healthy individuals and persons with schizophrenia. Latent-factor analysis of these data revealed that in persons whose cortical neurons more strongly expressed genes for synaptic components, cortical astrocytes more strongly expressed distinct genes with synaptic functions and genes for synthesizing cholesterol, an astrocyte-supplied component of synaptic membranes. We call this relationship the Synaptic Neuron-and-Astrocyte Program (SNAP). In schizophrenia and aging - two conditions that involve declines in cognitive flexibility and plasticity 1,2 - cells had divested from SNAP: astrocytes, glutamatergic (excitatory) neurons, and GABAergic (inhibitory) neurons all reduced SNAP expression to corresponding degrees. The distinct astrocytic and neuronal components of SNAP both involved genes in which genetic risk factors for schizophrenia were strongly concentrated. SNAP, which varies quantitatively even among healthy persons of similar age, may underlie many aspects of normal human interindividual differences and be an important point of convergence for multiple kinds of pathophysiology.

Selection pressures of TP53 mutation and microenvironmental location influence epidermal growth factor receptor gene amplification in human glioblastomas.

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene amplification occurs in glioblastomas as so-called double minutes. Because double minutes are extrachromosomal fragments, selection pressures must operate to maintain high EGFR copy number over multiple cell divisions. In analyses of glioblastoma lysates, EGFR amplification has been observed almost exclusively in glioblastomas harboring wild-type TP53 genes, which raises the alternative hypotheses that TP53 mutation either prevents amplification or selects against maintenance of EGFR-amplified cells. To address these possibilities at the cellular level, we studied 14 glioblastomas for TP53 mutation and EGFR gene amplification status, using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for the latter. Remarkably, four of the six cases with TP53 mutation had isolated EGFR-amplified cells in different regions, demonstrating that EGFR amplification occurs frequently at the cellular level in TP53-mutant glioblastomas. Thus, TP53 mutation does not prevent EGFR amplification but does not facilitate selection of EGFR-amplified cells. Of the eight cases without TP53 mutation, five had widespread EGFR amplification. In four of these five cases, multiple regions of the tumor were available for examination; FISH demonstrated a gradation of EGFR amplification, with highly amplified cells, primarily at the invading edges rather than the relatively solid tumor centers, suggesting that EGFR overexpression, when selected for in vivo, may be related to tumor invasion.